THE STUDY of Pleistocene shorelines in Highland Britain is made difficult by their discontinuous nature, and by their differing longitudinal gradients resulting from varying isostatic recovery. To help in resolving these difficulties in Easter Ross and Sutherland, the study was begun by mapping all definite moraines within the probable range of the Late-glacial sea. The reasons for this will become apparent in the following detailed description of the Beauly Firth. This proceedure is a basic and essential preliminary to shoreline study and is being applied to all East Highland Firths. It aids in the recognition and verification of doubtful shoreline features, and gives a framework for the preparation of a shoreline diagram. The account confines itself in detail to the features on the northern shore of the Beauly Firth (Fig. Ia), since the southern shore is identical in evolution, apart from complications introduced by several deltas and ice contact slopes. The northern shore fronts the Black Isle peninsula and is composed of Middle Old Red Sandstone. This varies from the red sandstone exposed at Tarradale quarry to the conglomerates of Ord Hill farther east. The major trend of the geological structures is orientated at an angle of fifty degrees with the shoreline. The whole of the coastal zone (here defined as the zone which has undergone marine re-working of sediments in Lateand Post-glacial times) is composed of incoherent glacial, fluvioglacial and marine deposits. Thus the solid geology has had no morphological bearing on the shoreline during the period under consideration. The Beauly Firth witnessed one of the most important Late-glacial readvances in the Scottish Highlands, namely, the Kessock Readvance. The glacial features of this readvance extend along the northern side of the Firth rising to a height of 200 feet O.D. and appear in the landscape as hummocks, massive ice-contact slopes, small eskers and kettles. The whole series slopes eastward and, passing through two kame terraces, ends in a massive high level delta at Kessock (Fig. ib and ic). This 'high terrace' (A. G. Ogilvie, 1923) or 'higher beach' (J. Horne and L.W. Hinxman, I 94) has been interpreted as a remnant of a great fluvioglacial apron. Although cited by W. B. Wright (I937, p. 372 and Plate XX) as an example of the 'o00 foot raised beach', this explanation was rejected by Ogilvie on the basis of its surface unevenness and height range. Ogilvie states that its seaward edge varies from 84 feet at the Point to 5o feet on the west, but this is interpreted as a result of the younger and lower beaches having cut back into either incised meltwater distributaries or into slump features both caused by a relative fall of sea-level. Ogilvie's 'wavecut notch' at 80 feet could well have the same origin. The material exposed in small sections on the delta is rounded to sub-rounded, but no single exposure is extensive enough to allow an estimation of the sorting or bedding. The general morphology and situation of the 'high terrace', and its intimate relationship with the