The Lismore Landscape Project: Environmental Dating

In Gaelic---in preparation

Pilot radiocarbon dating of one sample of peat at between 316 and 326cm below the ground surface indicates that Balnagowan loch contains the whole of the later Holocene in its upper peat stratigraphy, whilst the early-mid Holocene is in the lower marl part of the sequence. Assuming no hiatus, there is a fairly standard sedimentation rate of around 20 years per cm of depth in the upper peat part of the core.

GU-10622 Balnagowan Loch, 316--326cm, peat humic acid, d13C=-29.1 per mil 5630 ± 70

Calibration

• 4540--4360 cal BC (1 sigma)
• 4620--4330 cal BC (2 sigma)

Acknowledgements

The sample was collected by Rupert Housley and Simon Stoddart and submitted by Rupert Housley for dating to Gordon Cook of the Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre (SURRC).

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