Derryvree’s Buried Pool
Archived: 17 September 2026
31,423 BCE is a modern chronological label within unstable MIS 3, not a recorded Irish year. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, freshwater organic sediments between glacial tills indicate a temporary ice-free, treeless wetland landscape, dated broadly to 36,900–31,700 calibrated years BP. Plant and insect remains show pools, mosses and open periglacial ground. Comparable Ulster deposits demonstrate fluctuating ice cover. Castlepook Cave’s MIS 3 fauna, including reindeer, mammoth and hyaena, shows periodic ecological connections with Europe, while ancient-DNA findings remain provisional. Possible tool damage on a reindeer bone suggests, but does not establish, human visitation. Later glaciation buried or destroyed older evidence.