Fife and lower Tay

Abstract

This area includes the peninsula of Fife between the Firth of Tay and Firth of Forth, the lower Tay valley and Strathearn (Figure 15.1). The low-lying coastal areas and the lower parts of the valleys contain extensive accumulations of Late-glacial and Holocene marine deposits, the investigation of which has been the principal research theme in this area. The Fife and lower Tay area contains evidence for only one period of glaciation, that of the Late Devensian ice-sheet. It can reasonably be inferred, however, that the area was glaciated on more than one occasion and that the ice-moulded nature of most of the hills is the cumulative result of successive glaciations rather than solely the product of the last ice-sheet. Good evidence for glaciation of this region during the early Middle Pleistocene has been provided from the immediate offshore zone by Stoker and Bent (1985), and subsequent ice-sheet glaciation on at least three occasions may be inferred from evidence in neighbouring regions (Bowen et al., 1986). The only feature that is known from the region to predate the last ice-sheet is the rock platform at, or close to, present sea level which can be followed around much of the coast of eastern Fife. This platform and its associated cliffline are overlain in places by glacial deposits and they have been presumed to be interglacial in origin (Sissons, 1967a).