JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORIC.AL SOCIETY; 27 INlottes Oltil $lh1@1r® $ ~ 1rn cdl Im ii 1111 (DooeyJ, ll.etteir1macalw~rd, C@.. IO>o1negal) by P. J. MacGILL Paper ,-ead to Members of County Donegal Historical Society at Dooey Sandhills on the 3rd August, 1947. G EOLOGISTS tell us that the whole of I·reland did not feel the full rigours of the second ice a.ge which ended Rbout 12000 years ago, but only that part north nf a line drawn from Limerick to Wexford. The land freed from its heavy burden rose and fell a numbeor of times before it finally settled down, leaving the .beach from Wicklow around the north 'to Sligo at a higher level relative to the sea than it was in glacial times. Macalister says: "Ireland did not rise and fall as a whole, rather did it move like the sU'rface of a bedroom mirror, supported upon pivots, in which, when the upper part is moved backward, the lower part moves forward." This raised beach is 25 feet above the level of the sea on the northern coast, but as we move south it~ altitude gradually decreases until it reaches the present sea-level at the two points named, Wicklow and Sligo. In all prolbabillty it continues under the sea as a sunken beach- as far beneath the surface as the northern raised beach is above it, and consequently hiding from our eyes all traces of ea•rly colonists. examination nf its landward boundary would very likely reveal its ice age shore-line. The surface of the land did not rise and fall suddenly a.fter the melting of the ice, wther was this movement a gradual process spread over, perhaps, thousands of years E.O that the northern coast-line remained for a long time at sea level before there was any noticeable elevation. OLDEST RiEMAINS OF MAN The oldest ·remains of man in Ireland have 1been found on the 25-feet .raised beach in the north-east corner. The earliest flints in the country have been unearthed in the gravel beds of Larne and Portrush. Other parts of the count·ry may have had colonies o'f these earliest inhabitants, 'but so far, no reliable traces of them have come to light. No human remains have been found in association with these implements., so that nothing is known of the physical character of the peorple. It is thought, however, that a long, narrow skull found during excavations in Belfast in 1922, may belong to this peroi'd. TOOLS AND IMPLEMENll'S The low-lying land in which we stand The tools and implements of the raised here in Dooey is in all likelihood part beach stage in No:rthern Ireland are few of that raised 'bea.ch, and a geological in number. No bone implements or
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