BIRM-166’s Mossy Reedbed
Archived: 18 September 2026
31,260 BCE is a chronological label, not a precise Irish date, within climatically unstable MIS 3. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater sediments beneath later glacial till, radiocarbon dated broadly to 36,900–31,700 calibrated years BP. Mosses, herbs, sedges and bogbean indicate open tundra wetlands with severe seasonal conditions, not continuous woodland. Ireland's ice cover was variable, though major expansion approached. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, records diverse Ice Age fauna, but mixed deposits prevent reconstructing one contemporary community. A possibly tool-cut reindeer bone suggests human presence, yet lacks secure context. No settlement or history is established; sediments and ice define this past.