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Sunday 13 March 2022

Ilfracombe erratic spread



The plateau behind Berrynarbour -- erratics up to 175m?

I'm intrigued by a statement by Prof Nick Stephens that there is erratic material in the Ilfracombe - Berrynarbour area, on the plateau to the south, up to an altitude of 150 m - 175 m.  This is recorded on p 202 of the 1998 GCR volume on The Quaternary of SW England.  I have not been able to find further information on this -- but it would not surprise me to find erratic boulders and cobbles up there, and Nick Stephens was a very good geomorphologist who would not have said anything without firm evidence.

This of course points to a considerable incursion by Irish sea ice across the Devon coast, thick enough and extensive enough to affect the Barnstaple - Fremington area, the Saunton-Croyde area and to have dumped the Shebbear erratic more than 20 km south of Ilfracombe.  Indeed, it would be extraordinary if this ice did NOT overtop the cliffline and press well inland, since it was able -- on at least one occasion -- to flow over Lundy Island to the west and over the islands of the Scilly archipelago, far to the south. (I demonstrated that in my research on the Isles of Scilly some years ago.)  It also makes sense for Irish Sea ice to have impinged upon Exmoor and to have had an upper surface at maybe 200m, since it did at one time extend another 60 km to the east -- leaving till at Greylake, in the Somerset Levels.




2 comments:

Tony Hinchliffe said...

From what you say Prof Nick Stephens states, I surmise there may have been, or still are, remnants of erratic material on the course of the ILFRACOMBE golf course in the area of Widmouth Hill. Maybe an inquiry to that Golf course as to its landscaping etc would near fruit...... There is a modern link with Lundy island, which you mention for its geomorphological connotations - the ferry shop embarks for Lundy in the summer. So anyone with a keen interest in glaciation would enjoy a stay in Ilfracombe and a ferry trip and stay on Lundy.....curiously, when I was in a community singing group near me, such a trip and stay has been offered for many years!

Tony Hinchliffe said...

The blight of "predictive text".....

near fruit = bear fruit

ferry shop = ferry ship

!!#!!#grrr...