A note on the glacial and late glacial history of caithness

✍ Scribed by Derek Flinn

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 312 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0072-1050
• DOI: 10.1002/gj.3350160303

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

It is generally accepted that in the last glaciation Scottish ice from the Moray Firth flowed to the northwest across Caithness depositing shelly drift. Examination of striae along the east coast of Caithness shows that some were formed by ice flowing into and not out of the Moray Firth. It is argued that the flow into the Moray Firth may have occurred in the last glaciation and that the shelly drift may be a relic of an earlier glaciation. The cliffs of Caithness were formed during the Loch Lomond Readvance and have since been raised isostatically and so have been protected from further marine erosion by their own wave‐cut platform which can be traced into Orkney where it intersects the present level.