Middens, fulacht fiadh and coastal walks at Cork's Little Island

Little Island was an actual island until an early 19th-century infill project saw it joined to the mainland

Carrigrennan Mill, Little Island in Cork Harbour

The year is 7,000 BC. Imagine you are a hunter gatherer in the mesolithic period in Ireland and you make landfall in your dugout canoe at a wooded island in a huge harbour. The climate is benign enough to allow a sheltered camp to be established — and with ample fishing and smalls animals to hunt in the woods, food supply will not be an issue. After a time you notice other settlements on other islands in the harbour: nearby at Brown Island, Harper’s Island and Great Island.

This type of scenario is attested by the discovery more than 100 years ago of several middens — basically giant refuse tips where the camp occupants discarded oyster shells, primarily. It is unlikely that these hunter-gatherers developed permanent settlements as no evidence has been found that they did.