Awbeg Reindeer Signal
Archived: 14 September 2026
Around 31,772 BCE, Ireland lay within the climatically unstable Marine Isotope Stage 3, before the Last Glacial Maximum, but no evidence permits reconstruction of a single year. Calibrated deposits at Derryvree and Greenagho in Fermanagh show intermittent non-glacial environments, including cold wetlands with mosses, sedges and northern insects. Castlepook Cave above County Cork’s Awbeg Valley preserves a diverse, time-averaged fauna, including reindeer, mammoth, giant deer, predators and small cold-adapted mammals. A cut-like mark on a reindeer femur may indicate Upper Palaeolithic butchery, yet cannot prove settlement. Later ice erased evidence; no established human community, polity or culture is securely known.