The Awbeg Bone Mark
Archived: 19 September 2026
Abstract
Around 31,231 BCE, Ireland lay in a volatile Late Pleistocene environment, before the Last Glacial Maximum. Calibrated dates cannot identify conditions in a single calendar year, but Fermanagh sediments indicate periods of ice-free, treeless tundra wetlands with mosses, sedges and grasses, later buried by advancing ice. Cave and fossil assemblages show reindeer and other cold-stage animals reached the island. A marked reindeer femur from Castlepook Cave may record Upper Palaeolithic butchery, although its context and interpretation remain disputed. No settlement or political history is known. The evidence instead suggests active landscapes, changing access routes, climate, and possible visits by hunter-gatherers.