Juniper Beneath the Drumlins
Archived: 9 September 2026
Around 31,861 BCE, Ireland was a climatically unstable Late Pleistocene landscape approaching more extensive glaciation, not a historically documented society. Derryvree sediments in Fermanagh indicate open, treeless tundra or wet muskeg, with grasses, sedges, juniper, herbs and cold-adapted mosses. Castlepook Cave in Cork preserves remains of reindeer, mammoth, giant deer, bears, wolves, hyaenas, Arctic foxes and lemmings, demonstrating a diverse cold-stage fauna. Possible cut marks on a reindeer bone may indicate Upper Palaeolithic human activity, but remain unconfirmed and cannot prove settlement. Later ice reshaped and obscured older landscapes, leaving fragmentary evidence of Ireland’s ecological connection with Ice Age Europe.