Maguirebridge Sedge Basin
Derryvree preserves an unusually precious glimpse of an Irish landscape that later glaciation mostly destroyed or concealed. Mosses, sedges, herb pollen and cold-adapted beetles indicate open vegetation and a periglacial climate: ground subject to intense freezing and thawing, rather than a wooded country like modern Ireland. Sparse cover of grasses, sedges and low herbs would have occupied damp margins and more sheltered ground; exposed surfaces could have been stony, wind-scoured and seasonally frozen. This was tundra-like country, but it should not be pictured as a uniform white wilderness. Lakes, channels, wet hollows and patches of vegetation created local variety in a harsh landscape.