Derryvree’s Bogbean Waters
Archived: 15 September 2026
31,643 BCE is a modern notional date within Marine Isotope Stage 3, not an identifiable Irish event. During this volatile pre-Last Glacial Maximum period, Ireland’s ice, coastlines and habitats changed repeatedly, while lower sea levels sometimes enabled animal movement from Britain. At Derryvree, Fermanagh, freshwater sediments between glacial tills preserve pollen, bogbean, mosses, sedges and cold-adapted insects, indicating open tundra wetland during a broad interval. Castlepook Cave records diverse cold-stage fauna, but its disturbed deposits span millennia. A cut-marked reindeer bone suggests possible Upper Palaeolithic human activity, not settlement. Later glaciation erased much evidence, requiring cautious interpretation in every conclusion.