Fermanagh’s Buried Bogbean
Archived: 14 September 2026
Around 31,739 BCE, Ireland lay within the climatically unstable Late Pleistocene MIS 3, before the Last Glacial Maximum. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater sediments between glacial tills, indicating cold, open wetland landscapes with sedges, mosses, bogbean and Arctic-alpine plants during an interglacial interval. Southern caves, notably Castlepook and Shandon, contain remains of mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, predators and other Ice-Age fauna, although their deposits span millennia. A cut-marked Castlepook reindeer femur may indicate brief human handling of carcasses, but no securely associated tools, hearths or settlements exist. Ireland’s evidence therefore documents dynamic environments and animals, while human occupation remains unproven.