BIRM-166’s Fermanagh Waterline
Archived: 19 September 2026
Abstract
Around 31,221 BCE, Ireland was in the unstable MIS 3 phase of the Late Pleistocene, not a period permitting year-specific history. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, the BIRM-166 deposit records a freshwater, vegetated interval between glacial advances, broadly dated to 36,900–31,700 cal BP. Its pollen, plants and insects indicate cold, open wetland habitats rather than continuous ice cover. Cave remains in County Cork show varied Ice Age fauna. A marked reindeer femur may indicate human butchery around 33,000 years ago, but cannot prove settlement or society. Expanding ice later destroyed or buried much evidence, leaving a fragmentary environmental record of change.