The Castlepook Femur Problem
Archived: 15 September 2026
Around 31,642 BCE, Ireland lay within the unstable Late Pleistocene, with lowered seas, shifting ice margins and open habitats rather than a fixed island landscape. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves Ireland’s pre-Last Glacial Maximum vertebrate archive, containing mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, bear and spotted hyena remains. Redating demonstrates that its mixed deposits span long periods and cannot document a single year. A reindeer femur bearing a possible stone-tool cut may indicate brief human carcass processing, but lacks archaeological context. No settlement, tools, hearths or social institutions are established. Castlepook reveals ecological links with north-western Europe and uncertainty over earliest visitors.