Moss-Rich Mud at Derryvree
Archived: 16 September 2026
About 31,568 BCE, Ireland lay within the unstable Late Pleistocene, although evidence permits only broad chronological ranges. At Derryvree, Fermanagh, moss-rich freshwater deposits beneath later till record treeless, cold periglacial terrain, with sedges, shallow water and open vegetation. Southern caves, notably Castlepook, preserve Marine Isotope Stage 3 fauna including mammoth, giant deer, reindeer, hyaena and Arctic species, indicating intermittent connections beyond Ireland. Changing sea levels and ice margins shaped access routes. A cut-marked reindeer bone may indicate brief human activity, but no secure settlement evidence exists. Subsequent ice expansion likely destroyed earlier archaeology, leaving an environmental rather than social history.