Castlepook’s Scavenger Cave
Archived: 19 September 2026
Around 31,214 BCE, Ireland experienced variable Ice-Age conditions during Marine Isotope Stage 3, with open tundra, freshwater habitats and cold-adapted wildlife. Derryvree deposits in Fermanagh preserve evidence of sedges, mosses, insects and specialised plants between glacial advances. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, contains over 2,000 bones accumulated across millennia, including mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, hyaena and Arctic fox. A reindeer femur dated to about 31,000 BCE bears a possible stone-tool cut mark, suggesting brief human carcass processing. However, no securely associated artefacts, hearths or occupation layers confirm settlement. Castlepook remains an exceptional palaeoenvironmental archive and tentative evidence of early human visitation.