Derryvree’s Juniper Wetland
Archived: 17 September 2026
Abstract
The modern label 31,492 BCE denotes no recoverable Irish event but falls near the younger end of Derryvree’s calibrated freshwater sequence in County Fermanagh. Organic silts between glacial tills, dated broadly to 36,900–31,700 calibrated years BP, record an ice-free interval of cold, open wetland containing grasses, sedges, herbs, juniper, dwarf willow, mosses, aquatic plants and insects. They demonstrate local environmental change, not uniform island conditions. Lower sea levels and fluctuating ice shaped a varied Irish Sea landscape. Cave fauna indicates wider mammoth-steppe connections. A possibly cutmarked Castlepook reindeer bone suggests, but cannot prove, early human activity; no settlement is attested.