The Quaternary in Scotland: a review

Abstract

SYNOPSISOnly two interglacial pollen sites are known in Scotland, both in Shetland. There is at present no satisfactory evidence that the decay of the last ice-sheet was interrupted by a significant readvance. Decay was probably complete by 12 500. The Loch Lomond Readvance, which probably began before 10 800, is associated with excellent end moraines (often, significantly, multiple) at more than 100 locations. Former firn lines can be calculated and palaeoclimatic inferences made. The mapped limit of the readvance accords with the distribution of 58 lateglacial pollen sites. Periglacial processes currently operate on the Scottish mountains but were extremely active during the Loch Lomond Readvance, when permafrost (with frost wedges) existed down to sea-level. A summary of the sequence of lateglacial and postglacial sea-level changes (especially in the southeast) includes re-dating of the low-level rock platform and cliff of western Scotland and leads to an unconventional mode of deglaciation for the Glasgow area.CONTENTS

Late Devensian and Holocene relative sea‐level changes on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK

“…The lack of evidence for early Holocene changes at the sites studied may be a reflection of their location with respect to the centre of isostatic uplift in Scotland, as Smith (2005) observed for the sites on the mainland nearby. That the subsequent rise in Holocene relative sea levels, the Main Postglacial Transgression of Sissons (1974b), culminated widely in western Scotland at the Blairdrummond Shoreline is corroborated by evidence from the Solway Firth, where Dawson et al (1999) and Smith et al (2003) record a late Holocene transgressive overlap exceeding the height of the Main Postglacial Shoreline there. It seems likely that the Blairdrummond Shoreline is the most extensive Holocene raised shoreline in western Scotland.…”

The last British Ice Sheet: A review of the evidence utilised in the compilation of the Glacial Map of Britain

“…The Perth Readvance was proposed by Simpson (1933) and supported by Sissons (1963aSissons ( , 1964Sissons ( , 1967b based upon the distribution of ice-marginal depositional complexes, particularly glacifluvial landform assemblages, and their association with raised shorelines. Although the Perth Readvance was later rejected by Paterson (1974) and even by Sissons (1974aSissons ( ,b, 1976aSissons ( , 1981 himself, account needs to be taken of the glacifluvial landform assemblages originally used in its identification. A glacier margin associated with the "Main Perth Shoreline" has been confirmed in the Stirling area by Francis et al (1970) but no evidence for a readvance has been forthcoming.…”

“…Two eminent researchers of Scottish glacial geomorphology, J.K. Charlesworth and J.B. Sissons were responsible for championing major regional readvances, including the Lammermuir-Stranraer, Aberdeen-Lammermuir and Perth Readvances (detailed briefly above). The Lammermuir-Stranraer Readvance of Charlesworth (1926a,b) and Sissons (1961c), although later rejected by Sissons (1974aSissons ( ,b, 1976b, was based upon the occurrence of a prominent belt of glacifluvial landforms in the Stranraer/ Galloway coast area and in central Scotland, specifically around the Pentland and Lammermuir Hills. The lack of end and lateral moraines at the margins of the proposed Aberdeen-Lammermuir and Perth readvances was initially explained by Sissons (1967a) as the result of rapid ice stagnation before he rejected their readvance status.…”

Environmental change and the chemical record in Loch Lomond sediments

“…), which extended as far south as Alexandria in the Vale of Leven. There is evidence that this glacial re-advance was preceded by another marine incursion about 12 500 B.P., in the late Devensian (Sissons, 1974).…”