Genesis of Celtic Ireland

8,300 BC The Giant Irish Deer / Megacerous during this time became extinct and the Reindeer also disappeared altogether from Ireland as the conclusion of this particular 700 years of Ice Age was drawing to a close as the Upper Dryas Cold Phase came to an end, which was to bring about the most important single environmental change in Human history. Vast areas soon become open range, while trees such as Birch and Pine increased rapidly in Northern Europe and Ireland as more and more of the lowlands were flooded by the continuing rising seas.

The Magdalenian Culture that had previously existed for 8,200 years now also began to disappear in Europe and the hunters there began to follow the Reindeer further northwards into Denmark and Northern Germany. In the Mediterranean Basin where the changes were less notable and the Gravettian Culture, that had begun nearly 19,000 years before, along with other such hunter based cultures continued to evolve.

8,000 BC Mesolithic peoples who were to be late hunters occupied the whole of the Mediterranean region and the Ice Cap still covering Ireland that still connected it to Scotland, finally melted away as the Seas continued to rise and the Irish Sea appeared. Human remains from this period were to be found in more modern times in Co. Sligo in the north - west of the Connacht Province and in Co. Offaly in the north - west of Southern Leinster. These remains belonged to the first nomadic hunters who by now had migrated from Europe and spread out all over Ireland who had weapons of flint arrows and knives, and there were also evidence of Sheep and Cattle in Ireland at this time. The Ice Sheets continued to melt further northwards with Hazel and Pine trees appearing in the forests.

It was also during this particular period in time that the first recorded walled city, Jericho was built in the Near East with walls 13’ high and lookout towers, and soon settlement in towns there became the way to live and the actual Tower 26' / 8 metres - high constructed there still exists today. The Emmer Wheat variety had also by now been domesticated and was being grown in the Jordan Valley, while Barley was being grown in the Fertile Crescent.

7,500 BC The Seas by now had risen, once again, to 98' / 30 metres below their present level as the Ice Sheets continued to melt.

7,490 BC There is evidence in Ireland also of a primitive settlement being set up during this period at Wood Park in Co. Sligo in the north - west of the Connacht Province.

7,000 BC The original walled 1,000 year old city of Jericho was destroyed and abandoned, but it would be reclaimed and rebuilt once again after 300 years.

This was the Early Mesolithic Period and stone axes were being used and hunter - gatherers appeared in Ireland without domestic animals or farming skills, living mostly along the coast and waterways and Human remains from this period were to be found in the far north of Ireland in the Lower Bann Valley near Coleraine / Cuil Rathain in Co. Derry in the north - east of the Ulster Province and in the south - west in the River Shannon Estuary between Co. Clare and Co. Kerry in the Munster Province. They were spread out north - east along the coast of Co. Antrim in the north - east of Ulster following the River Bann upstream to Loch Neagh and they were also settled on the shore of Loch Larne to the north of Belfast / Beal Feirste (The Mouth of the Sandy Ford) also in Co. Antrim in the north - east of Ulster where they were also chipping flint for tools. Peat - lands were by now also forming in the Midlands / Mide - Co. Meath and Co. Westmeath in Northern Leinster, which later on were to contain Alder, Birch, Elm, Hazel, Lime, Oak, Pine and Willow trees.

The remains of Mesolithic settlement were also to be found at Mount Sandel / Dun da Beann and at the The Fort of the Peaks in Co. Derry in the north - east of the Ulster Province from this period where they were using small flint blades / microliths, and hunting birds, fish, wild boar and gathering hazelnuts. Other sites were at Loch Boora near Kilcormac / Cill Chormaic (Cormac's Church) in Co. Offaly in the north - west of Southern Leinster where flints and axe - heads were being used and in the Blackwater Valley in the south of what is now the Munster Province.

6,500 BC During the Mesolithic Age the continuing melting Ice Sheets created what is now the English Channel as the land bridge across the rising watery divide disappeared completely and this removed any further land access to Albion / Briton and Alba / Scotland also from the Continent as all of the animals continued to move northwards. Also the flora and fauna, which had previously existed in Ireland during this period was to predate that in Briton being 30% less due to the land mass there still being previously connected to Europe by a land bridge and the continuing transmigration there. The Peat Bogs in Ireland, which were to be up to 30’ deep were still forming and the Great Elks, Wolves, Bears and Wild Boar were still at this time existing throughout Ireland, while the remains of the horns of the Great Elk were to be eventually found, in more modern times, west of Shercock / Searcog in Co. Cavan in Southern Ulster at Loch Sillan near the Co. Monaghan border. The people who existed in Ireland during this period in time were tall, fair, broad with red hair and were hunters and fishermen who had had crossed over from the west of Alba / Alban / Alpa / Albu / Scotland into the north of Ireland.

This was also around the same time in which the wheel was invented by the Sumerians that was to have a great impact on transmigration of all the different peoples seeking new territories as their individual populations expanded.

+On to Seanchus of Celtic Ireland - 4

Situated on the western bank of the Hunter River, midway between Muswellbrook and Denman the doorway to the Heart of Australia's "Horse Capital" in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales., Australia.

John & Sue Markham

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