Hollymount’s Inter-Till Lake
Archived: 17 September 2026
Although 31,445 BCE cannot identify an Irish event, it falls within Marine Isotope Stage 3, a climatically volatile Late Pleistocene interval. Inter-till deposits at Derryvree, Greenagho, Hollymount and Aghnadarragh demonstrate local ice-free phases amid advancing glaciers. Derryvree's freshwater sediments, dated broadly to 36,900–31,700 years ago, preserve evidence of tundra-like wetlands, aquatic plants and insects. Cave remains at Castlepook attest to diverse cold-adapted fauna, including mammoth, reindeer and hyaena, though their dates and associations vary. Human occupation remains unproven: a possibly butchered reindeer bone warrants investigation but demonstrates neither settlement nor continuity. Later ice destroyed or buried evidence, leaving environmental archives.