South-west Highlands

Abstract

The area termed the south-west Highlands in this chapter extends south of the Great Glen to the Highland boundary and from the central Grampians to the west coast, including the Kintyre peninsula (Figure 10.1). As elsewhere, there is a considerable range of environments in this region, which is reflected in its Quaternary history. Deposits older than the Late Devensian occur in southern Kintyre, but the main mountain area has been the major centre of successive episodes of ice accumulation and dispersion in Scotland (see Chapter 1), with the result that no deposits older than the Loch Lomond Stadial are known from the central part of the area. The often impressive features of glacial erosion, both in the mountains and in the fjord-like sea lochs, have developed through many periods of both ice-sheet and partial glaciation during the Pleistocene.