Derryvree’s Mossland Window
Archived: 17 September 2026
31,469 BCE is a modern label within an uncertain MIS 3 interval, not a recoverable Irish date. At Derryvree, Fermanagh, freshwater sediments between glacial tills, broadly dated to 34,950–29,750 BCE, preserve evidence of locally ice-free, periglacial wetlands. Mosses, sedges, dwarf willow, aquatic plants and cold-adapted insects indicate open tundra-like terrain with pools, frost and seasonal thaw. Crag Cave records milder phases in south-west Ireland, while Castlepook Cave fauna confirms cold-stage mammals, including mammoth and reindeer. A marked reindeer bone may indicate human butchery, but cannot prove occupation. Ireland’s environment remained dynamic, regionally varied and increasingly affected by expanding ice sheets.