New data on speleothem deposition and palaeoclimate in Britain over the last forty thousand years

²³⁰Th/²³⁴U dates are presented for 26 speleothems from three areas in Britain: Assynt, N.W. Scotland; N.W. Yorkshire; Mendip Hills, Somerset. These dates suggest that speleothem growth was widespread but rare in the period from 40 to 26 Ka, absent from 26 to 15 Ka, and abundant from 15 Ka to the present. The absence of speleothems between 26 and 15 Ka is attributed to glaciation in Yorkshire and Assynt and, tentatively, to continuous permafrost development in the Mendip Hills. The occurrence of speleothems before 26 Ka places restrictions on the extent of any ice sheet which may have been present in Scotland, and indicates that N.W. Scotland was not subjected to continuous permafrost at that time.