Derryvree’s Between-Till Waters
Archived: 17 September 2026
Around 31,369 BCE, Ireland lay within the climatically unstable Late Pleistocene MIS 3 interval, not a datable historical year. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater silts between glacial tills, indicating a locally ice-free, periglacial tundra environment during roughly 36,900–31,700 calibrated years before present. Open vegetation and freshwater habitats supported cold-adapted life. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, records MIS 3 fauna including mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, hyaena, wolf and Arctic fox, demonstrating ecological connections during lower sea levels. Human occupation remains unproven: a possibly butchered reindeer bone is contested. Evidence chiefly reveals changing climate, ice, habitats and animals, rather than societies or events.