Fermanagh’s Thirty-Millennia Silt
Archived: 19 September 2026
31,208 BCE is a modern label rather than a recoverable Irish year; radiocarbon calibration permits only broad chronological ranges. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, freshwater silts between tills, dated broadly to 36,900–31,700 calibrated years BP, record a local ice-free, treeless wetland of sedges, mosses and arctic-alpine plants during unstable MIS 3 conditions. Cave calcite confirms climatic fluctuation, while ice extent remains uncertain. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves mixed remains of Pleistocene mammals, suggesting intermittent access for fauna. A marked reindeer bone may indicate early human butchery, but disturbed deposits preclude claims for settlement. No evidence supports polities, farming, occupation, or events.