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Global climate changes during the Quaternary reveal much about broader evolutionary effects of environmental change. Detailed regional studies reveal how evolutionary lineages and novel communities and ecosystems, emerge through glacial bottlenecks or from refugia. There have been significant advances in benthic imaging and dating, particularly with respect to the movements of the British (Scottish) and Irish ice sheets and associated changes in sea level during and after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Ireland has been isolated as an island for approximately twice as long as Britain with no evidence of any substantial, enduring land bridge between these islands after ca 15 kya. Recent biogeographical studies show that Britain's mammal community is akin to those of southern parts of Scandinavia, The Netherlands and Belgium, but the much lower mammal species richness of Ireland is unique and needs explanation. Here, we consider physiographic, archaeological, phylogeographical i.e. molecular genetic, and biological evidence comprising ecological, behavioural and morphological data, to review how mammal species recolonized western Europe after the LGM with emphasis on Britain and, in particular, Ireland. We focus on why these close neighbours had such different mammal fauna in the early Holocene, the stability of ecosystems after LGM subject to climate change and later species introductions. There is general concordance of archaeological and molecular genetic evidence where data allow some insight into history after the LGM. Phylogeography reveals the process of recolonization, e.g. with respect to source of colonizers and anthropogenic influence, whilst archaeological data reveal timing more precisely through carbon dating and stratigraphy. More representative samples and improved calibration of the 'molecular clock' will lead to further insights with regards to the influence of successive glaciations. Species showing greatest morphological, behavioural and ecological divergence in Ireland in comparison to Britain and continental Europe, were also those which arrived in Ireland very early in the Holocene either with or without the assistance of people. Cold tolerant mammal species recolonized quickly after LGM but disappeared, potentially as a result of a short period of rapid warming. Other early arrivals were less cold tolerant and succumbed to the colder conditions during the Younger Dryas or shortly after the start of the Holocene (11.5 kya), or the area of suitable habitat was insufficient to sustain a viable population especially in larger species. Late Pleistocene mammals in Ireland were restricted to those able to colonize up to ca 15 kya, probably originating from adjacent areas of unglaciated Britain and land now below sea level, to the south and west (of Ireland). These few, early colonizers retain genetic diversity which dates from before the LGM. Late Pleistocene Ireland, therefore, had a much depleted complement of mammal species in comparison to Britain. Mammal species, colonising predominantly from southeast and east Europe occupied west Europe only as far as Britain between ca 15 and 8 kya, were excluded from Ireland by the Irish and Celtic Seas. Smaller species in particular failed to colonise Ireland. Britain being isolated as an island from ca. 8 kya has similar species richness and composition to adjacent lowland areas of northwest continental Europe and its mammals almost all show strongest genetic affinity to populations in neighbouring continental Europe with a few retaining genotypes associated with earlier, western lineages. The role of people in the deliberate introduction of mammal species and distinct genotypes is much more significant with regards to Ireland than Britain reflecting the larger species richness of the latter and its more enduring land link with continental Europe. The prime motivation of early people in moving mammals was likely to be resource driven but also potentially cultural; as elsewhere, people exploring uninhabited places introduced species for food and the materials they required to survive. It is possible that the process of introduction of mammals to Ireland commenced during the Mesolithic and accelerated with Neolithic people. Irish populations of these long established, introduced species show some unique genetic variation whilst retaining traces of their origins principally from Britain but in some cases, Scandinavia and Iberia. It is of particular interest that they may retain genetic forms now absent from their source populations. Further species introductions, during the Bronze and late Iron Ages, and Viking and Norman invasions, follow the same pattern but lack the time for genetic divergence from their source populations. Accidental introductions of commensal species show considerable genetic diversity based on numerous translocations along the eastern Atlantic coastline. More recent accidental and deliberate introductions are characterised by a lack of genetic diversity other than that explicable by more than one introduction. The substantial advances in understanding the postglacial origins and genetic diversity of British and Irish mammals, the role of early people in species translocations, and determination of species that are more recently introduced, should inform policy decisions with regards to species and genetic conservation. Conservation should prioritise early, naturally recolonizing species and those brought in by early people reflecting their long association with these islands. These early arrivals in Britain and Ireland and associated islands show genetic diversity that may be of value in mitigating anthropogenic climate change across Europe. In contrast, more recent introductions are likely to disturb ecosystems greatly, lead to loss of diversity and should be controlled. This challenge is more severe in Ireland where the number and proportion of invasive species from the 19th century to the present has been greater than in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve 10Be and five 26Al samples from the mountains of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) (1085 m) (n = 7 10Be) and Y Glyderau (the Glyders) (1001 m) (n = 5 paired 10Be/26Al) in Wales provide new insights into landscape evolution in the highest mountains in the British Isles outside of Scotland. The summits of Y Glyderau are characterised by intensely modified frost-shattered surfaces and have long been recognised as exemplars of mountain summit periglacial activity in the British Isles. However, glacially transported boulders on the highest ground indicate that ice overran the summits. Bedrock and boulder surfaces at altitudes >900 m yield 10Be and 26Al exposure ages of 61–78 ka, indicating that the last Welsh Ice Cap did not override and erode Y Glyderau summits at the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the summits stood as nunataks. Both the geomorphological and the exposure dating evidence indicate ice overran the summits earlier in the last glacial cycle during MIS 4, although erosion was only partial. Thick ice over Wales at this time is consistent with evidence of an extensive British-Irish Ice Sheet that reached the continental shelf to the west in MIS 4. The ice-scoured lower slopes of Y Glyderau and the arêtes of Yr Wyddfa were exposed as the ice cap rapidly thinned between 20-16 ka marking a transition from ice cap to alpine-style glaciation. On Yr Wyddfa, the highest mountain in southern Britain, local ice breached and abraded the central parts of the Crib Goch-Crib y Ddysgl arête as high as 874 m until c. 16 ka. However, some arête crests yielded Holocene ages (4.4–9.3 ka), which reflect continual post-glacial stripping. • 10Be/26Al dating provides new insights into the history of glaciation over Wales. • The Welsh Ice Cap was last thickest in MIS 4 when ice submerged the highest peaks. • Ice was thinner at the global LGM when the highest summits existed as nunataks. • By 17-15 ka the ice cap had thinned forming localised alpine-style valley glaciers. • Arête rock surfaces have continued to erode by 1–2 m since deglaciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The vegetation of Europe has undergone substantial changes during the course of the Holocene epoch, resulting from range expansion of plants following climate amelioration, competition between taxa and disturbance through anthropogenic activities. Much of the detail of this pattern is understood from decades of pollen analytical work across Europe, and this understanding has been used to address questions relating to vegetation-climate feedback, biogeography and human impact. Recent advances in modelling the relationship between pollen and vegetation now make it possible to transform pollen proportions into estimates of vegetation cover at both regional and local spatial scales, using the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm (LRA), i.e. the REVEALS (Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites) and the LOVE (LOcal VEgetation) models. This paper presents the compilation and analysis of 73 pollen stratigraphies from the British Isles, to assess the application of the LRA and describe the pattern of landscape/woodland openness (i.e. the cover of low herb and bushy vegetation) through the Holocene. The results show that multiple small sites can be used as an effective replacement for a single large site for the reconstruction of regional vegetation cover. The REVEALS vegetation estimates imply that the British Isles had a greater degree of landscape/woodland openness at the regional scale than areas on the European mainland. There is considerable spatial bias in the British Isles dataset towards wetland areas and uplands, which may explain higher estimates of landscape openness compared with Europe. Where multiple estimates of regional vegetation are available from within the same region inter-regional differences are greater than intra-regional differences, supporting the use of the REVEALS model to the estimation of regional vegetation from pollen data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A submillennial ice readvance from upland centres of ice dispersal in west central Scotland into northeastern Ireland post-dates the retreat of lowland Irish ice immediately after the Killard Point Stadial (max. 16.5 cal ka BP). The dimensions of this southerly and westerly ice sheet readvance on the margins of the North Channel are reconstructed from subglacial bedform patterns, subglacial tectonic deformation of Tertiary lignite and glacigenic sediment, limiting moraines/outwash and glacial stratigraphy. Morainic ridges at Rams Island and Sandy Bay on the eastern margin of the Lough Neagh basin which mark this ice limit are perpendicular to a well-defined field of subglacial bedforms across east County Antrim. At the ice readvance limits glacial lakes impounded in the Lagan Valley were partially infilled with subaqueous outwash known as the Malone Sands. This water body drained south along the Dundonald/Comber Gap spillway providing sediment which formed extensive, late-glacial marine terraces at the northern end of Strangford Lough around 15–15.5 cal ka BP. The East Antrim Coastal Readvance is part of a much more extensive readvance southwards along the North Channel and adjacent lowlands associated with ice sheet reorganisation and ice sheet growth in west central Scotland. It is now termed the North Channel Readvance and may be similar in age to the Wester Ross Readvance moraines in northwestern Scotland. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Quaternary climatic fluctuations have had profound effects on the phylogeographic structure of many species. Classically, species were thought to have become isolated in peninsular refugia, but there is limited evidence that large, non-polar species survived outside traditional refugial areas. We examined the phylogeographic structure of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), a species that shows high ecological adaptability in the western Palaearctic region. We compared mitochondrial DNA sequences (cytochrome b and control region) from 399 modern and 31 ancient individuals from across Europe. Our objective was to test whether red foxes colonised the British Isles from mainland Europe in the late Pleistocene, or whether there is evidence that they persisted in the region through the Last Glacial Maximum. We found red foxes to show a high degree of phylogeographic structuring across Europe and, consistent with palaeontological and ancient DNA evidence, confirmed via phylogenetic indicators that red foxes were persistent in areas outside peninsular refugia during the last ice age. Bayesian analyses and tests of neutrality indicated population expansion. We conclude that there is evidence that red foxes from the British Isles derived from central European populations that became isolated after the closure of the landbridge with Europe. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Plio-Pleistocene intensification of Northern Hemisphere continental ice-sheet development is known to have profoundly affected the global climate system. Evidence for early continental glaciation is preserved in sediments throughout the North Atlantic Ocean, where ice-rafted detritus (IRD) layers attest to the calving of sediment-loaded icebergs from circum-Atlantic ice sheets. So far, Early-Pleistocene IRD deposition has been attributed to the presence of high-latitudinal ice sheets, whereas the existence and extent of ice accumulation in more temperate, mid-latitudinal regions remains enigmatic. Here we present results from the multiproxy provenance analysis of a unique, Pleistocene-Holocene IRD sequence from the Irish NE Atlantic continental margin. There, the Challenger coral carbonate mound (IODP Expedition 307 site U1317) preserved an Early-Pleistocene record of 16 distinctive IRD events, deposited between ca 2.6 and 1.7 Ma. Strong and complex IRD signals are also identified during the mid-Pleistocene climate transition (ca 1.2 to 0.65 Ma) and throughout the Middle-Late Pleistocene interval. Radiogenic isotope source-fingerprinting, in combination with coarse lithic component analysis, indicates a dominant sediment source in the nearby British–Irish Isles, even for the oldest, Early-Pleistocene IRD deposits. Hence, our findings demonstrate, for the first time, repeated and substantial (i.e. marine-terminating) ice accumulation on the British–Irish Isles since the beginning of the Pleistocene. Contemporaneous expansion of both high- and mid-latitudinal ice sheets in the North Atlantic region is therefore implied at the onset of the Pleistocene. Moreover, it suggests the recurrent establishment of (climatically) favourable conditions for ice sheet inception, growth and instability in mid-latitudinal regions, even in the earliest stages of Northern Hemisphere glacial expansion and in an obliquity-driven climate system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Within this paper we review the pre-Weichselian glacial history of northern Europe focussing on evidence from the British Isles, Netherlands, Norway and adjacent marine areas that record the activity of the British (BIS) and Scandinavian (SIS) ice sheets. The objective of the paper is to examine the long-term evolution of the two ice sheets in order to determine their level of synchronicity and their relationship to the Plio-Pleistocene record of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation. Geological evidence demonstrates striking long-term similarities between the behaviour of the BIS and SIS, with a step-wise intensification in the glacial signal: (1) first Ice Rafted Debris (IRD) input onto the continental margin at ca 2.7–2.6 Ma and restricted glaciation prior to ca 1.1 Ma; (2) initiation of more lowland-style glaciation from 1.1 Ma; (3) repeated shelf-edge glaciations from 0.45 Ma. These ‘steps’ coincide with a major intensification of the Northern Hemisphere climate signal at the beginning of the Quaternary, and the Mid Pleistocene Transition. Temporal and spatial variabilities in the behaviour of different sectors of the BIS and SIS appear to reflect regional-scale geographic (latitude, elevation), climatic (moisture, temperature) and glaciological (deformable beds) controls that modulate the build-up of ice volume in the main ice accumulation areas relative to global climate forcing and its subsequent lateral expansion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents the outcome of a workshop, held in Berlin in February 2009, concerned with current research on the glacial history of northern Europe, including the British Isles. The methodologies presently used to resolve this topic are outlined. Particular attention is given to new analytical methods deriving from high resolution remote imaging of glacial terrain both on land and on the sea-bed, key new stratigraphic sections, higher resolution results from conventional geochronological methods like radiocarbon and more recently developed technologies such as luminescence and cosmogenic radionuclide dating. The relationships between the results derived from these two methods are discussed in further detail along with possible explanations for these differences. An outline of a ‘most likely’ glacial history of the Scandinavian and British and Irish Ice Sheets is presented along with possible links to global climate change as represented by the marine isotope (MIS) record. Tentative evidence for glaciation is identified in MIS 22, 16, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 and correlations of ‘phases’ within the Last Glaciation are also explored for both the Scandinavian and British and Irish Ice Sheets. The results show that the character and extent of glaciation in different parts of the region are not synchronous and much more geochronological work is required before regional correlations can be established with confidence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Lundy lies in a strategic geographical position for understanding the glacial history of the British Isles. The island bears evidence of glaciation, largely in the form of ice-moulded bedrock and glacially-transported boulders – an unusual occurrence this far south in the British Isles. Irish Sea ice penetrated the western Bristol Channel overriding Lundy from the northwest during the last phase of glaciation in this area. The results of paired terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide analyses (26Al/10Be) constrain the timing of this extensive glaciation and provide, for the first time, an age for the exposure of Lundy granite following deglaciation. The results from nine paired samples yield 26Al/10Be exposure ages of 31.4–48.8 ka (10Be) and 31.7–60.0 ka (26Al). This challenges the view that any glaciation this far south must belong to Middle Pleistocene glaciations, such as the Anglian Stage (c. 480–420 ka) and a Devensian age for the last glaciation is consistent with findings from the Isles of Scilly further south. However, the findings suggest early-mid Devensian (marine isotope stage (MIS) 4–3) glaciation of Lundy. It also implies that the island was exposed or covered for a short time by non-erosive cold-based ice at the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) during MIS 2 (26–21 ka). The potential exposure of the island throughout MIS 2 contrasts with the evidence from the Isles of Scilly and the Celtic Sea, which were glaciated at the LGM. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A multi-proxy Lateglacial environmental record is described from Sluggan Bog in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Pollen, plant macrofossil, charcoal, sediment chemistry, stable isotope and sedimentological data provide a multi-faceted picture of local and regional environmental changes during the transition from the Last Cold Stage to the beginning of the present interglacial, and enable a series of distinctive palaeoenvironmental ‘events’ to be identified. A combination of radiometric and AMS radiocarbon dates on both humic and humin sediment fractions, and on charcoal fragments and plant macrofossils, provides one of the most closely-constrained radiocarbon timescales for any Lateglacial site in the British Isles. The evidence suggests that an initial period of warm conditions, beginning in the Sluggan record around 14.2 ka b2k (before AD 2000), and when open Salix-Betula woodland was locally present, was succeeded first by a heathland phase, then by a re-establishment of wood and scrub, before this was replaced during the later part of the Lateglacial (Woodgrange) Interstadial by species-rich grassland. In terms of timing, this sequence corresponds very closely to the GI-1e, GI-1d, GI-1c series of events in the Greenland NGRIP ice core. A short-lived Betula phase towards the end of the interstadial in the Sluggan sequence may reflect the short-lived climatic warming of GI-1a, although the radiocarbon age model suggests that it occurred prior to that event. There is a similar age discrepancy between the two sequences at the end of the interstadial with the onset of the Nahanagan (Younger Dryas) Stadial in Sluggan appearing to predate that in NGRIP by up to 200 yrs. By contrast, there is a very close correspondence between the date on the onset of the Holocene inferred from the pollen record in Sluggan (11.69 ka b2k) and the age of the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary (11.7 ka b2k) in NGRIP. While uncertainties remain over the climatic signals in the later interstadial, the evidence suggests that during the early and mid-interstadial and at the onset of the Holocene, Northern Ireland and Greenland appear to have been broadly phase-locked in their response to hemispherical climate change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Four decades of palaeosea-level research in the British Isles have produced a large dataset of age–altitude curves of postglacial sea-level changes. Patterns of late Holocene relative sea-level change reveal the persistent influence of the British/Irish Ice Sheet and the larger Scandinavian Ice Sheet on contemporary rates of vertical land movements. The map of late Holocene relative land movements has been used in future sea-level rise predictions by the United Kingdom Climate Impact Programme in their 2002 assessment (UKCIP02), but has been mistaken for a map of absolute land movements. In this paper, land-motion data for Britain are extracted from the relative sea-level data, and a new map of crustal land movements is presented which also includes Ireland. This procedure takes into account the regional 20th century sea-level rise (∼0.14m) and the process of ocean syphoning (i.e. a global fall in sea level of ∼0.3mm/yr due to GIA induced ocean-floor lowering and re-distribution of ocean mass). The calculated land-motion rates also depend on the global late Holocene ice-equivalent sea-level change, given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as 0.0–0.2mm/yr. Accounting for these processes reduces the misfit between geological observations of vertical land motion and those independently derived from gravity-aligned Global Positioning System (AG GPS) measurements and shows that UKCIP02 has underestimated land subsidence in southern Britain and over-estimated land uplift in Scotland, both by 0.1–0.2mm/yr. A best fit between GPS and geological estimates of land movements in Britain is achieved for a global long-term eustatic sea-level fall of ca 0.2mm/yr, suggesting some global ice expansion in the late Holocene, rather than melt. If this is correct, uplift rates in Scotland would be lower and subsidence rates in southern Britain would be faster (by 0.4–0.5mm/yr) than estimated by UKCIP02. More high-quality late Holocene relative sea-level data are required to quantify vertical land motion as accurately as possible, especially near large coastal population centres, for input into regional scenarios of future sea-level rise. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Multi-millennial climate changes were relatively minor over the mid–late Holocene in the British Isles, because orbitally forced insolation changes were smaller than those at higher latitudes. Centennial climate variability is thus likely to have exerted a greater influence on the environment and human society of the region. Proxy-climate records from the British Isles covering the last 4500years are assembled and re-evaluated with the aim of identifying centennial climate variability reflected by multi-proxy indicators. The proxies include bog oak populations, peatland surface wetness, flooding episodes from fluvial deposits, speleothem annual band width and oxygen isotopes, chironomids from lake sediments and sand and dune deposition. Most proxies reflect water balance rather than temperature alone, and records predominantly reflect warm season climate. A series of 12 key periods of enhanced precipitation–evaporation (P-E) are identified by their presence in two or more proxy records. Variability in P-E is much greater than that shown by temperature proxies and there is no necessary association between warm/cool and dry/wet periods. Although the data for temperature are less robust than those for P-E, a series of key temperature changes are proposed based on speleothem δ18O and chironomid inferred July temperature records; relatively cool before c. 3100years BP, warmer (3100–2000years BP), cool (2000–1250cal years BP), warm (1250–650cal years BP), and cool (650cal years BP onwards). Some key increases in P-E (2750, 1650, 550cal years BP) show a strong correspondence with ‘Bond cycles’ in ocean proxy records for increased ice rafted debris, decreased summer sea surface temperatures and sometimes decreased North Atlantic deep water circulation. Other higher frequency changes in P-E are also strongly related to SST variability. Whilst some of the main changes to cooler SSTs and increased P-E are approximately coincident with reduced solar output, most are not and thus must be the result of the internal dynamics of the ocean and atmosphere. Future work should concentrate on firmly establishing the pattern of temperature change, improving chronological accuracy and precision in existing records and improving process-based understanding of proxies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The last ice sheet over the British Isles, together with other mid-latitude Pleistocene ice sheets, and in contrast to the modern ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, had a relatively low profile, low summit elevation and extensive, elongated lobes at its margin. A thermo-mechanically coupled numerical ice sheet model, driven by a proxy climate, has been used to explore the properties that would have permitted these characteristics to develop. The approach, the key to quantitative palaeoglaciology, is to determine the boundary conditions that permit the simulated ice sheet to mimic the evolution of the real ice sheet through the last glacial cycle. Simulations show how a British ice sheet may have been confluent with a Scandinavian ice sheet during some parts of its history and how unforced periodic and asynchronous oscillations could occur in different parts of its margins. Marginal lobes are a reflection of streaming within the ice sheet. Such streams can be ephemeral, dynamic streams located because of ice sheet properties, or fixed streams whose location is determined by bed properties. The simulations that best satisfy constraints of extent, elevation and relative sea levels are those with major fixed streams that strongly draw down the ice sheet surface. In these, the core upland areas of the ice sheet were cold based at the Last Glacial Maximum, basal streaming velocities were between 500 and 1000ma−1 compared with surface velocities of 10–50ma−1 in inter-stream zones, shear stresses were as low as 15–25kPa in streams compared with 70–110kPa in upland areas and 60–84% of the ice flux was delivered to the margin via streams. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

European paleoenvironmental records through the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT; ca 16-8 cal ka BP) record a series of climatic events occurring over decadal to multi-centennial timescales. Changes in components of the climatic system other than temperature (e.g. hydrology) through the LGIT are relatively poorly understood however, and further records of hydroclimatic changes are required in order to develop a more complete understanding on the phasing of environmental and anthropogenic responses in Europe to abrupt climate change. Here, we present a multiproxy palaeoenvironmental record (macroscale and microscale sedimentology, macrofossils, and carbonate stable isotopes) from a palaeolake sequence in the Vale of Pickering (VoP), NE England, which enables the reconstruction of hydroclimatic changes constrained by a radiocarbon-based chronology. Relative lake-level changes in the VoP occurred in close association (although not necessarily in phase) to threshold shifts across abrupt climate change transitions, most notably lowering during cooling intervals of the LGIT (∼GI-1d, ∼GI-1b, and ∼GS-1). This reflects more arid hydroclimates associated with these cooling episodes in the British Isles. Comparisons to hydrological records elsewhere in Europe show a latitudinal bifurcation, with Northern Europe (50–60°N) becoming more arid (humid), and Southern Europe (40–50°N) becoming more humid (arid) in response to these cooling (warming) intervals. We attribute these bifurcating signals to the relative positions of the Atlantic storm tracks, sea-ice margin, and North Atlantic Polar Front (NAPF) during the climatic events of the LGIT. • Lake-level reconstructions can be used to reconstruct hydroclimatic changes. • Northern (Southern) Europe becomes more arid (humid) during abrupt cooling events. • European hydroclimatic changes were more dynamic than changes in temperature. • Hydroclimatic changes were not concurrent with δ18O in the Greenland ice cores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuing coastal erosion in the vicinity of Happisburgh in north Norfolk has revealed archaeological sites documenting early human presence during at least two episodes in the Early and early Middle Pleistocene. At Happisburgh 3, the oldest archaeological site in northern Europe (approximately 900,000 years old) finds include at least 80 flint artefacts and human footprints associated with abundant, well-preserved organic remains. The deposits consist of gravels and estuarine sands and silts contained within a complex of channels, which accumulated in the estuary of a large river, probably the ancestral River Thames. The environmental remains reflect a slow-flowing tidal river, at the limit of tidal influence, and a grassland valley bordered by conifer-dominated woodland. Analyses of the pollen, wood, cones and leaves have identified a diversity of coniferous taxa, with some unexpected central and southern European elements (Pinus mugo ssp. mugo , Pinus mugo ssp. rotundata and Juniperus thurifera) indicating a type of coniferous woodland no longer present in Europe today. Here we present the conifer finds and their environmental implications. A new multi-proxy consensus palaeoclimate reconstruction, using conifer and beetle mutual climatic ranges, confirms and refines previous indications of a more continental climate than today, with significantly colder winters. These results provide a new perspective for understanding the climate and environment encountered by Early Pleistocene hominins at the northernmost limit of their range. • Presentation and description of conifer taxa new to the British Isles. • First British macrofossil record of Abies alba. • Distribution and ecology of this non-analogue flora are discussed. • Combined conifer and beetle data provide a palaeoclimate reconstruction using mutual climatic ranges (MCR). • Significance of these results in highlighting the challenges for Early Pleistocene hominins at northern laltitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]