WILDCAT BONES DATING back over 5,500 years ago have been uncovered following an excavation at a cave in the Burren.

It’s the earliest directly dated wildcat (Felis silvestris) ever found in Ireland.

The discovery was made by Dr Marion Dowd, an archaeologist at Atlantic Technological University (ATU), during archaeological excavations in Glencurran Cave in the Burren, County Clare.

The bones date to around 3600 BC.

Until the discovery, no prehistoric cat remains in Ireland had been radiocarbon dated, leaving uncertainty over whether early finds represented wildcats or later domestic intrusions.

During excavations, 39 bones belonging to an adult wildcat were discovered deep within the Glencurran Cave.

Glencurran Cave in the Burren, Co Clare, where the earliest directly dated wildcat ever found in Ireland was discovered. Ken Williams Ken Williams

There were no cut marks or evidence of human interference, indicating that the animal died naturally inside the cave.

The bones were identified by zooarchaeologist Margaret McCarthy and radiocarbon dating carried out at Queen’s University Belfast confirmed the remains were over 5,500 years old.

Ancient DNA sequencing by Prof Claudio Ottoni and his team at the University of Rome Tor Vergata further verified the animal as a European wildcat, which is distinct from both modern domestic cats and Near Eastern wildcats.

The ancient DNA also showed that the Glencurran wildcat was a male and belonged to an ancient European lineage, closely related to wildcats from Italy and Spain, rather than the modern Scottish population. 

Dr Dowd said the discovery “transforms what we thought we knew about Ireland’s ancient wildlife”.

File image of European wildcat Luc Viatour, via Wikimedia Commons Luc Viatour, via Wikimedia Commons

She noted that for decades, small numbers of cat bones were found on prehistoric sites, including the Mesolithic site of Lough Boora, Co. Offaly and the Neolithic passage tomb of Newgrange, Co. Meath.

But without radiocarbon dating, it was impossible to confirm their age or species.  

However, this discovery provides solid evidence that wildcats were in Ireland in the Neolithic period.

Dowd added that the findings “raise major new questions”.

Were wildcats introduced by early hunter-gatherers during the Mesolithic period, or did they arrive thousands of years later with Neolithic farmers? How long did they survive in Ireland before extinction? And why are so few prehistoric cats remains known? 

She added: “We simply don’t know when wildcats arrived in Ireland or when they vanished.

“Medieval writers mention wildcats in the Irish landscape, but these may have been feral domestic cats.

“Confusion is also common with the pine marten- known in Irish as cat crainn, or ‘cat of the trees’.”

She called for other cat bones from prehistoric sites across Ireland to be radiocarbon-dated and noted that with radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA analyses, it’s not possible to separate true prehistoric wildcats from later domestic cats.  

Wildcats were once widespread across Europe but declined sharply from the 1700s due to habitat loss, hunting, and competition with domestic cats.

Wildcats prefer forest habitats and avoid humans, living mostly solitary, nocturnal lives.

Although similar in size and appearance to domestic cats, they are a different species. 

Dowd expressed hope that further analyses of cat remains from other sites may reveal how wildcats reached Ireland, how they lived, and when and why they vanished from the Irish landscape.