Hyenahall’s Open Range
Archived: 18 September 2026
Although 31,242 BCE is a modern filing date rather than a datable Irish event, evidence from surrounding millennia depicts a volatile Late Pleistocene environment. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves tundra wetland deposits between tills, proving an ice-free interval with freshwater habitats, plants and insects before later glaciation. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, contains Ireland’s richest cold-stage vertebrate assemblage, including mammoth, giant deer, reindeer, hyaena and wolf, but accumulated over thousands of years. A marked reindeer femur may indicate brief human butchery around 33,000 years ago, though disturbed context prevents stronger claims. No evidence supports permanent settlement, institutions, agriculture or continuous population there.