A reinterpretation of the Lateglacial environmental history of the Isle of Skye, Inner Hebrides, Scotland

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a major revision of the Late Devensian Lateglacial environmental history of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, based upon a combination of geomorphological, biostratigraphical and radiocarbon evidence. The distribution of glacial and periglacial landforms, and of raised shorelines, suggests that there was only one extensive readvance of local glaciers in southern Skye following the wastage of the Late Devensian ice sheet. Pollen‐stratigraphic evidence from 10 sites inside and 4 sites outside the mapped ice limits indicates that this readvance occurred during the Loch Lomond Stadial. At that time over 180km 2 of the uplands of south‐central Skye were covered by glacier ice, a much more extensive glaciation than previously envisaged. Palynological evidence from four Lateglacial profiles implies that degree of exposure to strong westerly winds was the principal factor determing vegetational contrasts on the island, and that regional differences in vegetational type were less pronounced than has hitherto been suggested. The glacial and palaeobotanical reconstructions reported here are more compatible with Lateglacial data from the Scottish mainland and Hebridean islands than were the previously‐published accounts for the Isle of Skye.