Maguirebridge’s Trifoliate Marsh
Archived: 17 September 2026
At the notional date of 31,373 BCE, Ireland lay within the climatically unstable Late Pleistocene, for which evidence permits only broad ranges rather than annual history. At Derryvree near Maguiresbridge, freshwater organic sediments between tills, radiocarbon dated broadly to this period, demonstrate an ice-free or ice-marginal interval with cold wetlands, bogbean, mountain avens, insects and active water. Castlepook Cave records a diverse cold-climate fauna, including reindeer, mammoth and predators, but mixed deposits prevent a single-date reconstruction. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone suggests disputed transient Upper Palaeolithic human activity. No evidence supports settlement, farming or society; climate and glaciation reshaped Ireland.