Abstract
A range of detailed palaeoenvironmental analyses carried out on a series of three peat profiles from Achill Island, Co. Mayo, western Ireland, reveal evidence for an extreme climatic event, probably a storm or series of storms, around 5200–5100 cal. yr BP that caused the deposition of an extensive layer of silt across blanket peat. This event followed a period of relatively dry climate during which Neolithic communities expanded in the region. There was a subsequent period of continuing dry conditions allowing extensive colonisation of the peat by Pinus before a shift to wetter conditions characteristic of the later Holocene. The extreme climatic event is possibly linked to human abandonment of the area comparable to that observed from the work on the internationally significant Céide Fields in the same region. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.