Cosmogenic 10be age constraints for the wester ross readvance moraine: insights into british ice‐sheet behaviour

This study presents the first absoluteage constraints from a palaeo‐ice‐sheet margin in western Scotland. Cosmogenic 10Be from four Lewisian gneiss boulders on the Gairloch Moraine in NW Scotland have yielded reliable exposure ages. Three of these dates, taken from a single moraine ridge, cluster around c. 15.5–18 ka BP, with a weighted mean of 16.3 ± 1.6 ka BP. These findings indicate that the last British Ice Sheet had retreated to the present‐day coastline in NW Scotland by this time. It is suggested that the Wester Ross Readvance represents an ice‐sheet oscillation during, or in the immediate aftermath of, Heinrich Event 1 (c. 17–18 ka BP).