BIRM-166’s Organic Bed
Archived: 18 September 2026
Abstract
Although 31,273 BCE is a modern label rather than a precise lived date, Derryvree in County Fermanagh preserves evidence of an ice-free interval during late MIS 3. Its organic bed, deposited between glacial sediments, records open wetland with tundra plants, insects and freshwater pools. Ireland’s ice history was regionally uneven, with later maximum glaciation and climatic fluctuations indicated by Crag Cave. Castlepook Cave’s fauna demonstrates the presence of mammals and predators in southern Ireland; a cut-marked reindeer bone may indicate human butchery. These fragmentary archives suggest habitable landscapes and mobile people, but not settlement, polities, trade or annual historical events.