Castlepook’s Stone Scar
Archived: 16 September 2026
At 31,537 BCE, Ireland had no recorded history; evidence instead concerns fluctuating Upper Palaeolithic climates, landscapes and fauna. Derryvree sediments indicate an ice-free northern wetland with tundra vegetation and cold freshwater pools, although regional ice likely expanded unevenly. Lower sea levels did not guarantee a land bridge from Britain. Castlepook Cave preserves time-averaged remains of mammoth, reindeer, hyaena and other cold-adapted animals, whose dates require cautious interpretation. A deeply incised reindeer femur may record stone-tool butchery and Ireland’s earliest human activity, but lacks secure context. It suggests transient foragers, not settlement, amid an ecologically active landscape increasingly threatened by glaciation.