Derryvree’s Muskeg Interlude
Archived: 14 September 2026
Labelled 31,727 BCE, this interval cannot be reconstructed as a single Irish year, but falls within late Marine Isotope Stage 3. At Derryvree, County Fermanagh, freshwater silts between glacial tills record an ice-free, periglacial tundra landscape of wetlands, sedges, mosses and sparse vegetation, later overridden by ice. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves cold-adapted fauna including reindeer, mammoth, giant deer, bears and hyaenas, though its deposits span long periods. A cut-marked reindeer femur may indicate early human activity, but remains unconfirmed. Lower sea levels altered coasts, while renewed glaciation increasingly reshaped Ireland’s unstable, ecologically active landscape during this climatically variable period.