Derryvree’s Tundra Seedbed
Archived: 18 September 2026
Abstract
31,346 BCE is a modern nominal date within a broad Late Pleistocene range, rather than a recoverable Irish year. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, organic sediments between glacial tills record an ice-free, cold, treeless tundra wetland with freshwater plants, mosses and sedges. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves MIS 3 remains of mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, predators and other cold-adapted fauna, though these did not necessarily coexist. A marked reindeer femur may indicate brief human carcass processing, but cannot prove settlement. Lower sea levels may have enabled animal movement, while routes remain uncertain. Evidence reveals changing environments, not societies, events or polities.