Flaga-Cuilags , Hoy
Significance: the site of a former small corrie glacier on Hoy

Flaga is a small recess cut into the NE side of Cuilags described by Sutherland in Hall (1996).  There are no rock faces developed in the corrie but it has a clear lip that separates it from the valley below. Near the valley bottom at an altitude of about 120 m there is a vegetated bedrock ridge that trends NNW-SSE.  From the top of this ridge extending farther to the SSE there is a slightly arcuate drift ridge about 150 m long and 2-3 m high on its outer margin.  To the north-west there is another smaller ridge somewhat higher on the slope.  Together these ridges appear to form a gentle arc across the valley side below the corrie lip. The disposition of the ridges suggests deposition by a small glacier that flowed out from Flaga corrie.  It is presumed that such a glacier would have been coeval with the ones that deposited the much clearer moraines in Enegars corrie and at Dwarfie Hamars.

Jim Hansom

Key Geomorphological Sites

  • Yesnaby

    Significance: a coastline noted for its Devonian geology and coastal geomorphology

  • Bay of Skaill, Sandwick

    Significance: this bay lies adjacent to Skara Brae and provides evidence of the interaction between coastal processes and human disturbance between 6600 and 4400 radiocarbon years ago. The settlement first re-emerged from the dunes after a storm in 1850.

  • Den Wick, Deerness

    Significance: this site provides evidence for changing ice-flow conditions during the last ice sheet glaciation

  • Churchill Barrier No. 4

    Significance: the construction of the Churchill Barriers started in 1940 and led to a fundamental change in the pattern of tidal flow around Scapa Flow. A range of coastal landforms have been created subsequently which illustrate the fundamental control of coastal configuration on the transport and deposition of sand.

  • Rackwick, Hoy

    Significance: Rackwick lies at the southern end of two major glacial breaches on Hoy. Its well-developed moraines indicate that at the close of the last glaciation two lobes of ice retreated northwards at a time when the Pentland Firth was probably still occupied by ice.

  • Old Man of Hoy

    Significance: The Old Man is the tallest sea stack in Britain, 137 m high

  • Enegars Corrie, Hoy

    Significance: a superb corrie formed at an unusually low elevation that was last occupied by a small glacier only 11,000 years ago

  • Ward Hill, Hoy

    Significance: Ward Hill provides examples of a range of active and fossil periglacial landforms. As the highest point on Orkney it also provides evidence of the thickness of the last ice sheet

  • Flaga, Hoy

    Significance: the site of a former small corrie glacier on Hoy

  • Dwarfie Hamars, Hoy

    Significance: the site of a small corrie glacier during the Loch Lomond Stadial

  • Muckle Head raised beach, Hoy

    Significance: a raised beach deposit at 6-12 m asl buried by till

  • Saville Boulder at Scar, Sanday

    Significance: a possible Scandinavian erratic on Orkney.

  • Otterswick, Sanday

    Significance: a peat deposit with willow boles formed 6500 years ago and now lying below sea level

  • Kilns of Brin Novan, Rousey

    Significance: the Kilns of Brin-Novan is an excellent example of an interconnected series of caves, arches and blow-holes which illustrate the sequential development of these features.

  • Mill Bay, Stronsay

    Significance: this coastal section provides perhaps the best available exposure of the shelly till which is characteristic of the eastern part of Orkney

  • The Nev, Westray

    Significance: exceptional cliff scenery and dramatic cliff-top storm deposits