Glacial Stratigraphy of Eastern Counties Meath and Louth

This paper describes the glacial stratigraphy of an area of 800km² in eastern Cos. Meath and Louth, eastern Ireland (Fig. 1). Four till formations and one glacio-marine formation have been recognised within the Pleistocene succession. The Drogheda Till Formation is the earliest till known in the area and was formed by an ice sheet glaciation which moved south-eastwards over the Drogheda area from north central Ireland. This is directly overlain by the glacio-marine Mell Formation. The Mell Formation is succeeded by the Tullyallen Till Formation which was formed when a major ice sheet expanded over the east coast plain from the Irish Sea Basin. The Tullyallen Till is overlain stratigraphically by the Gilltown Till Formation which was deposited by the last ice sheet of inland origin which moved south-eastwards over the area. The Dunleer Till Formation was formed during a major southward readvance of the last ice sheet in north Co. Louth. No datable organic deposits are known to occur between the five formations. It has proved difficult to assign the lower formations in this succession to any particular cold stage of the Pleistocene because of the absence of known, intraformational organic deposits.