Did Ireland ever have snakes?

Question

On this Saint Patrick's Day, I was pondering on this thought:

It's a common belief that Saint Patrick rid Ireland of snakes - by chasing them into the sea. It's true that Ireland doesn't have native snakes. But snakes are renown for being cold blooded and Ireland is renown for being cold - making them incompatible (I would have thought). It's likely that Ireland never had snakes to begin with.

Is there any physical evidence that Ireland ever had snakes?

I don't think Ireland's climate would be inherently incompatible with snakes. For example, [Finland has a few native species of snakes](http://www.herpetomania.fi/english/reptiles_of_finland.shtml). And as far as I can tell, the warmest parts of Finland are colder than the coldest parts of Ireland. — Nate Eldredge, Mar 17 '15 at 04:20
Is the real claim that "St Patrick rid Ireland of snakes"? I think it would be better to focus on that, rather than one aspect of evidence. — Oddthinking, Mar 17 '15 at 04:20
See also: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/19937/did-st-patrick-rid-ireland-of-druids-and-other-pagans — Oddthinking, Mar 17 '15 at 04:22
[This blog post](http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2010/03/17/4487416.html) is a bit vague but seems to suggest there are few or no reptiles found in the fossil record in Ireland. — Nate Eldredge, Mar 17 '15 at 04:26
@Oddthinking The myth is that St. Patrick rid Ireland of snakes. But the claim is that Ireland never had snakes (the reptilian variety). — Coomie, Mar 17 '15 at 08:30
By what standards is Ireland cold? There's nowhere else on that latitude where winters are milder. — gerrit, Mar 18 '15 at 19:01

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 17 '15 at 10:11

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It's likely that Ireland never had snakes.

This article by national Geographic says that there is no evidence of them having ever been there.

Monaghan, who has trawled through vast collections of fossil and other records of Irish animals, has found no evidence of snakes ever existing in Ireland.

The most likely explanation is that Ireland has been cut off from the mainland since the last ice age, when it would have been too cold for them to exist. As the climate warmed, snakes were unable to migrate to Ireland as they did to Britain.

answered Mar 17 '15 at 10:11

DJClayworth

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Perhaps a swallow... – Zibbobz Mar 17 '15 at 13:53
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African or European swallow? – DJClayworth Mar 17 '15 at 13:57
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I've always heard it put as you said, that snakes have not been in Ireland since the last glacial maximum. It's interesting that excerpt notes that there was *never* any snakes. I had wondered if there were any in the last interglacial period. – Adam Phelps Mar 19 '15 at 05:07

score -2 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 25 '15 at 11:16

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There never were any snakes in Ireland because Ireland took a long time to thaw out from the Ice Age Britain and the rest of Europe froze out before Ireland and as you know a snake is a reptile and reptiles like the warm climate and the snakes in Britain cant swim to Ireland

edited Mar 25 '15 at 11:16

ChrisW

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answered Mar 25 '15 at 10:54

Fariha Naz

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[Welcome to Skeptics!](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1505/welcome-to-new-users) Please [provide some references](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/5) to support your claims. – Oddthinking Mar 25 '15 at 12:34

Did Ireland ever have snakes?

2 Answers2