Castlepook’s Hyena Den
Archived: 19 September 2026
At the notional date 31,229 BCE, Ireland lay in the climatically unstable Late Pleistocene, approaching wider glaciation rather than wholly ice-covered. Derryvree in County Fermanagh preserves evidence of a cold, open, treeless wetland, later sealed beneath ice. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, contains Ireland’s richest Pleistocene fauna, including mammoth, reindeer, giant deer and spotted hyaena, though its deposits represent changing communities, not one moment. A possibly tool-marked reindeer bone suggests fleeting human presence, but remains unproven. No secure contemporary settlements, tools or social evidence exist. Environmental change, expanding ice and fragmented survival of evidence define this period in Ireland's prehistoric record.