Birm-166’s Tundra Basin
Archived: 15 September 2026
Around 33,600 calibrated years before 1950, Ireland lay within the unstable MIS 3 cold phase, rather than a precisely datable historical year. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater sediments between glacial tills, indicating locally ice-free, treeless tundra with wet hollows, hardy plants and insects. Cave finds at Castlepook, County Cork, show that reindeer, mammoth, giant deer, predators and other cold-adapted animals occurred in Ireland during MIS 3, though not necessarily simultaneously. A possibly cut-marked reindeer bone may indicate fleeting human activity, but cannot prove settlement. Expanding ice and changing seas shaped uncertain connections with Britain and Europe during this changing period.