Glenacardoch Point
Also within
Condition (NatureScot)
| Unit | Feature | Condition | Area (ha) | Assessed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | Quaternary of Scotland | Favourable | — | 2013-02-08 |
Climate exposure
This is about exposure to a nationwide pressure this habitat type carries — not a verdict on this site's own management.
Coastal habitats are exposed to sea-level rise and storm erosion. Where hard sea defences sit behind them, there's nowhere landward to retreat to — a squeeze that keeps compressing the habitat no matter how well it's managed.
Geology & landscape
Geological Feature: Raised Beach · Geological Period: Quaternary
Landscape processes: Coastal, Glacial
Description
GLENACARDOCH POINT Glenacardoch Point SSSI is situated on the west coast of Kintyre approximately 17.5 km north-west of Campbeltown and 36 km south-west of Tarbert. The site is notified for its Quaternary of Scotland interest. The Quaternary is the geological period spanning the last 2.6 million years. Glenacardoch Point contains a nationally important assemblage of relict coastal landforms – shore platforms and raised beaches – which demonstrate former changes in relative sea level. The lowest feature is an intertidal shore platform, believed to be part of the Main Rock Platform of western Scotland, formed during the Loch Lomond Stadial (towards the end of the last glacial period, around 12,900 – 11,500 years ago). The inner part of the platform is covered in Holocene (postglacial) raised beach gravels. At a higher level (around 13 m OD), a second shore platform is buried by till (glacial deposits) and pre-dates at least the last glaciation (around 33,000 – 15,000 years ago). The till was trimmed by the sea during the Late glacial Interstadial (around 15,000 – 12,900 years ago) and a series of raised beaches at 28-34 m OD formed in front of a backing cliff cut in the till. Glenacardoch Point provides a particularly fine and compact example of a sequence of relict shoreline features of demonstrably different ages that are representative of the main coastal landforms resulting from relative sea-level changes in the south-west Highland region. It has significant potential for further research on land-and sea-level changes and for linking the sequences of landforms and chronologies of events in western Scotland and Northern Ireland.