County Clare – Ireland's oldest trace of humans, c. 10,500 BC
County Clare holds the oldest known evidence of human activity in Ireland. A bear's kneecap with butchery cut marks, found in 1903 in the Alice and Gwendoline Cave near Clarecastle, was finally studied more than a century later and dated to around 10,500 BC. The discovery, announced in 2017, pushed back the story of people in Ireland by some 2,500 years.
Later, a Neolithic community whose name we do not know left monuments across the Clare landscape, and the county grew into a land of Gaelic lordships, castles and churches. Today Clare, with its county town Ennis, is known for the Atlantic coast, the Burren and its traditional music. Have a Clare story or legend? Share it with the community!