The Quaternary deposits and landforms of Scotland and the neighbouring shelves: A review

Middle to Late Devensian glaciation of north‐east Scotland: implications for the north‐eastern quadrant of the last British–Irish ice sheet

“…It was believed that the British and Scandinavian ice sheets had been confluent during the last glaciation (Geikie, 1894;Jamieson, 1906;Wright, 1914;Read, 1923;Bremner, 1943;Synge, 1956;Charlesworth, 1957;Sissons, 1967;Boulton et al, 1977), but exploration of the central NSB subsequently revealed thick sequences of glaciomarine material apparently containing few, if any units of Late Weichselian diamict of demonstrable subglacial origin. This supported ideas that the BIIS had been much more limited in size, both in extent and thickness (Sutherland, 1984;Boulton et al, 1985Boulton et al, , 1991Sutherland and Gordon, 1993). For example, in Sutherland's (1984) reconstruction of an independent BIIS, ice terminates at the eastern margin of the Wee Bankie, off the eastern Scottish coast (Figure 1), and, following Synge (1956) and Flinn (1967), parts of Caithness, Buchan and northern Lewis fall beyond its limits.…”

“…The terrestrial glacigenic sequence, striae, clast fabrics and distribution of indicator erratics show that the relative importance of ice dispersion centres changed during the last, and previous glaciations (Clapperton and Sugden, 1977;Sutherland, 1984;Sutherland and Gordon, 1993). For example, ice flowing from the Great Glen was forced eastwards across the coastal lowlands bordering the Moray Firth during an early phase of the last glaciation (Sissons, 1967;Fletcher et al, 1996) (Figure 4), possibly deflected by ice flowing south-eastwards from an ice divide stretching along the spine of the NW Highlands (Read, 1923;Bremner, 1934a, Bremner, 1943.…”

“…There has been a long-standing debate whether parts of Buchan remained ice-free throughout the last glaciation (Sutherland, 1984), or became so relatively early during retreat of peripheral parts of the last ice sheet, when ice-marginal lakes (Glacial Lake Ugie) were ponded behind coastal ice lobes inland of Peterhead (Hall and Connell, 1991) (Figure 6) . There was probably a sequential south-westward 'un-zipping' down the North Sea coast of 'Strathmore' and 'East Grampian' ice during deglaciation (Simpson, 1955), possibly accompanied by a marine incursion up to about 30 m OD (Peacock, 1999).…”

Calculating Quaternary glacial erosion rates in northeast Scotland

“…This is consistent with other observations from Glen Tilt, Scotland (Sutherland, 1984) and Glen Muick, Scotland (Clapperton, 1986) in that these glacially eroded valleys are primarily pre-late Devensian features. It is also consistent with the conclusion of Sharp et al (1989) that glacial erosion was limited beneath the last glaciers in Snowdonia, north Wales during the Younger Dryas event.…”

Ice caps existed throughout the Lateglacial Interstadial in northern Scotland

“…Although many workers have argued convincingly for the existence of small glaciers in favourable locations during the Lateglacial Interstadial (e.g. Sugden, 1980;Sutherland, 1984;Ballantyne and Sutherland, 1987;Clapperton, 1997), the idea of 'ice-survival' remains untested.…”