Derryvree’s Sealed Freshwater Bed
Archived: 14 September 2026
Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater silts between glacial tills, dating broadly to MIS 3 and indicating a temporary ice-free interval around 36,900–31,700 years ago. Its pollen, plants and insects reveal cold, treeless tundra wetlands with local ecological variation amid unstable climate. Cave fauna from Castlepook, County Cork, demonstrates changing communities including reindeer, mammoth and predators, although early excavations limit precision. A marked reindeer femur may indicate Upper Palaeolithic human activity about 33,000 years ago, but cannot prove settlement. Ireland was approaching renewed glaciation; evidence instead supports dynamic environments, cold-adapted animals and possibly brief mobile human visits during this broad interval.