Castlepook’s Hyaena Den
Archived: 16 September 2026
About 31,598 BCE, Ireland lay within the climatically unstable Middle Midlandian of the last Ice Age, not a precisely datable historical year. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater sediments between glacial tills, revealing treeless periglacial wetlands with sedges, mosses, insects and open tundra-like ground. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, yielded reindeer, mammoth, hyaena and other cold-stage fauna, although disturbed deposits prevent assuming a single community. Possible stone-tool cuts on reindeer bones may signal brief Upper Palaeolithic visits, but remain unconfirmed. No secure evidence demonstrates settlement, tools, camps or continuity of population. Environmental change, ice advance and poor preservation define this Irish past.