Bogbean Pools of Fermanagh
Archived: 16 September 2026
31,555 BCE is a modern label within a broad Late Pleistocene range, not a recoverable Irish historical year. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, freshwater silts between glacial tills indicate a MIS 3 ice-free interval followed by renewed glaciation. Mosses, sedges, bogbean, mountain avens and insects reveal a cold, treeless wetland-tundra mosaic. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves time-mixed remains of mammoth, reindeer, hyaena and other fauna, demonstrating harsh but habitable environments. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone suggests brief Upper Palaeolithic human activity, though not settlement. Sparse, uncertain evidence excludes claims about communities, politics or economy, while showing dynamic connections with north-west Europe.