Castlepook’s Pleistocene Fauna
Archived: 8 September 2026
31,990 BCE is an imprecise modern label for Ireland during Marine Isotope Stage 3, as no annual chronology or written evidence exists. Approaching the Last Glacial Maximum, Ireland experienced worsening, variable cold conditions, altered coastlines and uncertain land connections. Castlepook Cave in County Cork preserves Ireland’s richest pre-glacial vertebrate assemblage, including mammoth, giant deer, reindeer, bear and hyaena, accumulated across millennia. A possibly butchered reindeer bone may indicate a human visit around 33,000 years ago, but remains unconfirmed. No secure settlement or occupation is known. Glaciation and sea-level change destroyed evidence; firm colonisation occurred much later, during the Mesolithic period.