XIX.—The Late-glacial History of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland

Abstract

SynopsisFrom the abounding moraines, drainage features (fig. 21) and other marginal indications an attempt has been made to reconstruct the successive phases of the ice in its retreat into the corries of the Highlands and Islands (Pl. I). Two late-glacial stages are recognised. During the first, the Highland Glaciation, an ice-margin ran from the Orkney Islands across the mouth of the Moray Firth to the Buchan and out to sea north of Aberdeen. Twelve substages (A–L) of retreat, arbitrarily selected, have been traced through the country, except in the Moraineless West where they are unrepresented.At the maximum of the second stage, the Moraine Glaciation, the ice readvanced to the line stage M (beaded line in Pl. I). The retreat from this line, the inner boundary of the Moraineless West and of the 100-foot raised beach (Pl. I), is divided into nine substages (N–V), based upon a consideration of snowlines. Substage N corresponds to the 50-foot raised beach, substage P to an important readvance.The snowline throughout the late-glacial period ran in the west parallel with the meridians and rose eastwards. The disposition of the snowlines for stage M is given in fig. 22, p. 900.The distribution of the ice in the British Isles during the North British, Highland and Moraine Glaciations is represented in fig. 23, p. 923.

Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe

“…Erosional landforms like the present-day fjords and glacially eroded troughs prevail only at the western fringe of the former SIS and in the mountain regions of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and northwest England. The general southern and southwestern maximum extent of the Weichselian ice sheet is defined by means of morphostratigraphy on the maps of Woldstedt (1925Woldstedt ( , 1935 and Liedtke (1975), for example in the northern European mainland and those of Charlesworth (1955) and Clark (2012) in Britain. Minor local variations are discussed in some areas, mainly when end moraines are absent and dead ice hollows in the landscape suggest a "super maximum" ice advance, possibly equivalent to the more subdued terrain beyond the constructional landforms in lowland Britain and Ireland.…”

“…Cosmogenic radionuclide ages are used to infer a similar MIS 3 glaciation in the southern Baltic region, Poland and Lithuania, and the possible extent of these glacier expansions are shown in Marks (2012, Figure 8a). There have been some proposals for MIS 4 or MIS 3 glaciation in the area of the BIIS, based on either AAR determinations (Bowen et al 1985) or AAR and cosmogenic radionuclide exposure dates (Bowen et al, 2002), but hitherto none of the evidence cited has been replicated and there are no glacial deposits that can be attributed, by further analysis, to these periods.Typically, the topography of glacial terrain formed during the Late Pleistocene is characterized by lakes, dead ice hollows, meltwater valleys and channels, outwash cones and plains as well as ice Woldstedt (1925Woldstedt ( , 1935 and Liedtke (1975), for example in the northern European mainland and those of Charlesworth (1955) and Clark (2012) in Britain. Minor local variations are discussed in some areas, mainly when end moraines are absent and dead ice hollows in the landscape suggest a "super maximum" ice advance, possibly equivalent to the more subdued terrain beyond the constructional landforms in lowland Britain and Ireland.…”

Late Weichselian and Flandrian Pollen Diagrams From South‐west Scotland

“…The kettle is the largest of three at the northern edge of the Lammermuir-Stranraer kame moraine complex (Charlesworth, 1926(Charlesworth, , 1956. Pollen analyses were restricted to the bottom 2 m and the stratigraphy of the sediments described m detail refers only to the levels studied.…”

The last glaciation in Caithness, Scotland: revised till stratigraphy and ice-flow paths indicate multiple ice flow phases

“…These flow sets are overprinted locally by younger flow sets that relate to final deglaciation (Hughes et al, 2014). Widely-scattered fragments of former moraine systems, represented mainly by subdued, low ridges, provide important clues as to the patterns of ice retreat from Orkney and Caithness (Charlesworth, 1956;Rae, 1976) that can be added to the much-improved offshore record (Bradwell and Stoker, 2015;Bradwell et al, 2008;Clark et al, 2012) (Figure 3 ).…”