Castlepook’s Marked Reindeer Femur Revisited
Ireland was then in the last Ice Age, but not yet necessarily in the uniform, ice-covered condition popularly imagined for the whole period. The major expansion of the British–Irish Ice Sheet towards its later maximum was approaching and did not occur everywhere at precisely the same time. Reconstructions of the ice sheet show asynchronous growth and advance across Ireland, Britain and the continental shelf. Around this date, conditions could alter sharply over comparatively short geological intervals as North Atlantic climate switched between colder stadials and less severe interstadials. Any picture of a fixed, timeless frozen Ireland is therefore misleading.