Castlepook Reindeer Marks
Archived: 8 September 2026
Approximately 34,000 years ago, Ireland was a cold, unstable Late Pleistocene landscape of open tundra-steppe, changing sea routes and advancing glaciation. Castlepook Cave, County Cork, preserves Ireland’s richest pre-Last Glacial Maximum vertebrate assemblage, accumulated over millennia and disturbed by natural processes and excavation. Its remains include mammoth, giant deer, reindeer, bears, hyaenas and other cold-adapted fauna, demonstrating episodic animal occupation rather than a single ecosystem. A reindeer femur bearing possible stone-tool cut marks may indicate a brief Upper Palaeolithic human visit around 33,000 years ago, but cannot prove settlement. Further research is needed; secure Irish occupation appears much later substantially.