The most recent glaciation of the Orkney-Shetland Channel and adjacent areas

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Abstract
Synopsis: During the most recent glaciation Shetland was covered by an ice cap which flowed radially outwards from the islands, but was deflected in the SW so that it flowed in a northwesterly direction across Foula and in a southeasterly direction across Fair Isle. This pattern indicates that a flow to the SW from Shetland was blocked, possibly by a mass of ice lying over Orkney, but that there was no hindrance to flow towards Norway on the E side of Shetland. In the North Sea to the E of the Moray Firth there was an ice free area. Thus there is no evidence for a Scandinavian ice sheet in the area and consequently no reason for the deflection of Scottish ice from the Moray Firth to the NW across Orkney. It is suggested that the Scandinavian ice sheet covered the North Sea and deflected the Scottish ice across Orkney during the previous glaciation, but that in the last glaciation it did not cross the Norwegian Trench.