Fermanagh Silts, Cork Fauna
Archived: 14 September 2026
Abstract
31,773 BCE is a modern chronological label within unstable MIS 3, not a recoverable Irish year. Derryvree, County Fermanagh, preserves freshwater silts between tills, dated broadly to later MIS 3, showing cold, treeless, periglacial wetlands existed between glacial episodes. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, contains a long, mixed record of Ice-Age mammals, including mammoth, reindeer, giant deer, bear and hyaena, rather than a single contemporaneous fauna. A marked reindeer femur may indicate human carcass processing, but no associated tools, settlement or population evidence survives. Lower seas altered access, while major ice expansion later covered much of Ireland during subsequent glacial maximum.