A Reindeer Femur at Castlepook
Archived: 15 September 2026
At the notional date of 31,668 BCE, Ireland experienced unstable cold conditions of Marine Isotope Stage 3, not a single recoverable historical year. Inter-till wetland deposits at Derryvree, County Fermanagh, show treeless, wet tundra habitats during an ice-free interval, though dating remains broad. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves Late Pleistocene bones of mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, predators and other cold-adapted animals, accumulated over potentially separate episodes. A cut-marked reindeer femur may indicate human carcass processing around 33,000 years ago, but lacks associated tools or settlement evidence. Climate, ice advances and seas limited access, leaving no proof of occupation or continuity.