The Awbeg Femur Question
Archived: 17 September 2026
31,476 BCE is an imprecise modern label for a fluctuating Late Pleistocene interval in Ireland, within Marine Isotope Stage 3. Environmental evidence, including Derryvree freshwater deposits, cave calcite and glacial landforms, indicates alternating cold and milder conditions, varied habitats, advancing ice and uncertain routes from Britain. Castlepook Cave in County Cork produced cold-stage fauna and a reindeer femur bearing a possible stone-tool cut mark, dated around 31,000 BC. If anthropogenic, it suggests brief Upper Palaeolithic human activity. However, disturbed cave contexts, absent tools, hearths and human remains preclude claims for settlement or population. The femur remains important but contested evidence.