© Martin KirkbrideSnow blankets Scotland's Cairngorm Mountains.
The Cairngorm Mountains of eastern Scotland are the snowiest part of the Scottish Highlands even today. But previous studies of rocks from around the United Kingdom suggested that the last glaciers vanished from the region after about 11,500 years ago, when a cold period called the Younger Dryas ended.
"Conventional wisdom is that's when Scotland had its last glaciers," said study researcher Martin Kirkbride, a senior lecturer at the University of Dundee. The new study reveals that a later cold snap brought glaciers back to the land.
The last glacier
Kirkbride discovered Scotland's last glacier inadvertently while doing fieldwork with undergraduate students in the Cairngorms. One student was working on a project about how avalanches moved debris down the mountain slopes, and the researchers were curious about where the boulders they saw littering the bottom of the hills came from. They hiked up the slope and found ridges of boulders bordering a large slab of granite.
Comment: It appears that these researchers should talk to their colleagues, who found this summer the prestage for glacier formation at Mt. Ben Nevis:
Another sign of impending Ice Age? Glacier-like hazards discovered during the summer on Ben Nevis, Scotland