Inverness area

Abstract

The Inverness area comprises the lowlands along the Moray Firth coast from the Dornoch Firth to east of Nairn, the upland areas of the hinterland and the glaciated valleys extending to the west and south-west, including the Great Glen (Figure 7.1). The principal focus of research on this area has centred on the evidence for the last ice-sheet, the pattern of deglaciation and the changes in relative sea level that both accompanied and followed the ice wastage (Auton, 1990a; Firth, 1990a). Until recently, only one deposit was known to predate the Late Devensian, the high-level shelly clay at Clava. However, the discovery of possible Hoxnian deposits at Dalcharn and probable Early Devensian interstadial deposits at a site on the Allt Odhar, both associated with multiple till successions, together with detailed reinvestigation of the Clava succession, has enabled the development of a provisional stratigraphy extending back to the Anglian (Merritt, 1990a).