Quaternary of Scotland, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1993 Geological Conservation Review Series

In describing the geomorphological heritage of Scotland, this volume offers a remarkable account of how the natural environment responded in terms of landforms, processes and plant communities, to severe climatic change as the Quaternary era progressed over the last two million years.
This legacy, as preserved in the 138 nationally important GCR sites described, documents a remarkable diversity of landforms in a relatively small area. The rugged highland contrast with the rolling hills and flat plains found further south, while the western and northern islands, together with the highly-indented coastline add further to the scenic diversity. How this variety of landscapes came into being, the forces which shaped it , and the climatic extremes which drove it, are the themes explored in this volume.

1 Introduction.- 2 The Quaternary in Scotland.- 3 The Shetland Islands.- 4 The Orkney Islands.- 5 Caithness.- 6 North-west Highlands.- 7 Inverness area.- 8 North-east Scotland.- 9 Eastern Grampian Mountains.- 10 South-west Highlands.- 11 Inner Hebrides.- 12 Outer Hebrides.- 13 Western Highland Boundary.- 14 Eastern Highland Boundary.- 15 Fife and lower Tay.- 16 Western Central Lowlands.- 17 Lothians and Borders.- 18 South-west Scotland.- References.

'...a marvellous tour de force of the Scottish Quaternary, and a testament to the great diversity of the landscape and the impressive range of work that has been conducted over the years ... a clear and informative overview ... an invaluable sourcebook ... an essential volume'Quaternary Newsletter'a fine reference tome...physical production of the volume is very good...such a fine compendium of knowledge should be widely accessible to both lay people and researchers'New Phytologist' ...an impressive volume in every respect. It is very substantial, well organized, richly illustrated and comprehensively written compendium of sites in Scotland... thoroughly researched and copiously referenced and it is difficult to imagine a better way of presenting such a huge volume of material in one place...The format of the book is logical and easy to use...this substantial volume will prove indispensible to those who are interested in the Quaternary development of the Scottish landscape...logical and easy to use'Holocene Book Reviews'An immense amount of time and effort has clearly been spent by the editors in producing this volume, which forms an impressive reference text...The Quarternary of Scotland deserves a place in all reference libararies and no doubt will be of considerable use in planning field trips and searching for obscure site references'Geoscientist