In 2016, a bear patella with butchery marks found in the cave was dated to the Upper Palaeolithic, which is potentially the oldest known evidence of human habitation in Ireland.

The Alice and Gwendoline Cave is located on the grounds of the 18th-century Edenvale House,[1] about 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) southwest of Ennis in Cahircalla townland.

A portion of the thousands of animal bones found in the cave was deposited in the National Museum of Ireland – Natural History in the 1920s.

[10] In 2011, animal osteologist Ruth Carden identified a butchered bear patella from Alice and Gwendoline Cave in the National Museum's collection.

[15] Previously, the earliest evidence of human habitation in Ireland was Mount Sandel, a Mesolithic site in Coleraine which dates to c. 9,800–9,600 cal.

[17] Archaeologist Jesse Tune further argues that human habitation of Ireland would not have been viable until the Holocene, due to the climatic and ecological conditions prior.

He also argues that the dating of the cut marks on the patella is uncertain due to the lack of precise geoarchaeological investigation of the cave's sediments and similarly-dated artefacts.