Maguirebridge’s Periglacial Pools
Archived: 19 September 2026
About 31,209 BCE, Ireland experienced a fluctuating Late Pleistocene climate rather than a precisely datable event. At Derryvree near Maguiresbridge, freshwater sediments between glacial tills, dated broadly to 36,900–31,700 years ago, show a local ice-free interval with pools, sedges, mosses, bogbean and open tundra vegetation. Castlepook Cave preserves remains of mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, predators and other cold-adapted animals, though not from one moment. A marked reindeer bone may indicate brief human butchery, but no secure settlement evidence exists. Ireland’s changing ice, lowered seas and later glaciation fragmented this record, preserving chiefly environmental history rather than political or social narratives.