Was there a late Welsh Ice cap advance following the LGM?

The study area on the SE coast of Ireland

This is an interesting and rather specialised paper which describes a late expansion of the Irish Ice Cap on the coast of southern Ireland, following the wastage and ice-edge retreat of the Irish Sea Glacier.  On the coast of Ardmore Bay, at the time of the LGM, Irish Sea ice travelled from the east towards the west.  However, following ice retreat into what is now the offshore zone, Irish ice expanded, with some of it flowing in precisely the opposite direction.  A little further to the east, there was a 90 degree change in the direction of ice flow, with Irish ice from the Midlands flowing southwards towards a snout position more than 20 km offshore. 

What happened on the west side of St George's Channel may well also have happened on the east side......

 There is evidence of a late Welsh ice advance in North Wales, but the evidence from Cardigan Bay and the South Wales coast is more equivocal.  Indeed, the evidence from New Quay and elsewhere suggests that there might have been a "Welsh" glacial phase, with ice from the Welsh ice cap flowing out across the coastline, BEFORE the maximum extent of the Irish Sea Glacier, but not afterwards.  All very confusing.  Watch this space.......

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Geomorphological and seismostratigraphic evidence for multidirectional polyphase glaciation of the northern Celtic Sea
Zsuzsanna Tóth, Stephen Gerard McCarron, Andrew James Wheeler, Volkhard Spiess et al

February 2020

JOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE (2020) 1–14JOURNAL OF ,e of the LGFM a=SCIENCE (2020) 1–JOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE (2020) 1–14

DOI:
10.1002/jqs.3189


Abstract

High‐resolution seismic and bathymetric data offshore southeast Ireland and LIDaR data in County Waterford are presented that partially overlap previous studies. The observed Quaternary stratigraphic succession offshore southeast Ireland (between Dungarvan and Kilmore Quay) records a sequence of depositional and erosional events that supports regional glacial models derived from nearby coastal sediment stratigraphies and landforms. A regionally widespread, acoustically massive facies interpreted as the ‘Irish Sea Till’ infills an uneven, channelized bedrock surface overlying irregular mounds and deposits in bedrock lows that are probably earlier Pleistocene diamicts. The till is truncated and overlain by a thin, stratified facies, suggesting the development of a regional palaeolake following ice recession of the Irish Sea Ice Stream. A north–south oriented seabed ridge to the north is interpreted as an esker, representing southward flowing subglacial drainage associated with a restricted ice sheet advance of the Irish Ice Sheet onto the Celtic Sea shelf. Onshore topographic data reveal streamlined bedforms that corroborate a southerly advance of ice onto the shelf across County Waterford. The combined evidence supports previous palaeoglaciological models. Significantly, for the first time, this study defines a southern limit for a Late Midlandian Irish Ice Sheet advance onto the Celtic Sea shelf.