✓ Revise Right course
A drumlin is an elongated hill of till deposited and shaped beneath a moving glacier, aligned with the direction of ice flow. Notes and 14 questions answered.
Glacial Deposition and Landforms is part of Section C: Physical landscapes in the UK in GCSE AQA Higher Geography.
6 min
Reading time
25
Lessons in this topic
GCSE AQA Higher
Pathway
Reviewed by Revise Right
Content review
A drumlin is an elongated hill of till deposited and shaped beneath a moving glacier, aligned with the direction of ice flow. Notes and 14 questions answered.
Use this lesson to stay inside Section C: Physical landscapes in the UK while connecting the detail back to the wider Living with the physical environment topic.
Read the core explanations from Glacial Deposition and Landforms before testing yourself from memory.
Picture a conveyor belt carrying rubble across a landscape. While the belt moves, it carries everything with it. The moment the belt slows or stops, the rubble drops. Glaciers work in exactly the same way — and understanding when and why they drop their load is the key to understanding every depositional landform you need to know.
During the last ice age, ice sheets and valley glaciers covered much of the UK. As they moved, they picked up enormous quantities of rock debris through processes like plucking and abrasion. This material was carried within the ice, on top of it, and beneath it. When conditions changed, that debris was deposited — and the landforms left behind are still visible across the UK today, from the drumlin fields of County Down in Northern Ireland to the moraines of the Lake District.
There are two main types of glacial deposit, and examiners expect you to know the difference. Till is dropped directly by the ice itself — it is completely unsorted, meaning boulders, gravel, sand, and clay all sit jumbled together. Outwash is carried and deposited by meltwater streams flowing away from the glacier snout. Because water sorts material by weight, outwash is layered and graded, with coarser particles close to the ice and finer particles further away.
| Feature | Till | Outwash |
|---|---|---|
| Deposited by | Ice directly | Meltwater streams |
| Sorting | Unsorted — mixed particle sizes | Sorted — graded by size |
| Location | At or beneath the glacier | Beyond the glacier snout |
| Typical landforms | Moraines, drumlins | Outwash plain (sandur) |
Now that you know why glaciers deposit, you can start to see how specific landforms are created. Moraines are the most straightforward depositional landforms — they are ridges or mounds of till left behind by a glacier. The type of moraine depends on where the debris was deposited relative to the ice.
Terminal moraines are particularly useful to geographers because they act as markers. By studying their position, scientists can reconstruct exactly how far the ice extended during the last glacial period. In the UK, terminal moraines in areas like the Vale of York give us clear evidence of where the ice sheet halted.
Moraines form where ice stops. Drumlins form where ice keeps moving — and that difference in process produces a completely different shape. A drumlin is a smooth, elongated hill of till that was moulded beneath an active glacier. Think of it like clay being shaped under a moving hand: the ice streamlines the sediment into a teardrop form aligned with the direction of ice flow.
Drumlins rarely appear alone. They tend to occur in large groups called drumlin fields or 'basket of eggs' topography — a name that captures the way dozens of smooth oval hills cluster together across a lowland area. The drumlin fields of the Eden Valley in Cumbria and County Down in Northern Ireland are classic UK examples.
The exact mechanism of drumlin formation is still debated by geographers, but the key exam point is clear: drumlins are formed by deposition and reshaping beneath moving ice, their long axis is parallel to ice flow, and the stoss end is steeper than the lee end. You can use the shape of a drumlin to work out the direction the glacier was travelling.
Beyond the terminal moraine, meltwater streams carry sediment away from the glacier and spread it across a broad, flat area called an outwash plain (also known by the Icelandic term sandur). This is where the sorted nature of outwash becomes visible in the landscape.
As meltwater loses energy moving away from the ice, it deposits the heaviest material first. Coarse gravels and sands settle close to the snout; fine silts and clays are carried further before being deposited. The result is a gently sloping plain with a clear pattern of particle size — coarser near the ice, finer further away. This grading is called sorting, and it is the defining characteristic that separates outwash from till.
Everything covered so far connects to a bigger picture: ice was one of the most powerful forces that shaped the physical landscape of the UK. During the Pleistocene epoch (roughly 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), repeated glaciations covered much of Britain. The erosional and depositional processes of these glaciers left a legacy that defines upland and lowland landscapes across the country.
In upland areas like the Lake District, Snowdonia, and the Scottish Highlands, erosional landforms dominate — corries, aretes, U-shaped valleys, and ribbon lakes. But in lowland areas beyond the ice margin, depositional landforms take over. The drumlin fields of Northern Ireland, the moraines of East Anglia, and the outwash plains of the Midlands all record the extent and behaviour of past ice sheets.
This contrast between erosional uplands and depositional lowlands is a key theme for AQA. The physical landscape of the UK today cannot be understood without recognising the role that glacial ice played in sculpting it — both by removing material and by depositing it elsewhere.
You now have the knowledge — the final step is translating it into marks. AQA questions on glacial deposition typically use the command words 'describe', 'explain', or 'compare'. Each one demands a different response structure, and mixing them up is one of the most common ways students lose marks.
Worked example: Answering an 'Explain' Question on Drumlin Formation
Explain how drumlins are formed. [4 marks]
Answer: A four-point answer covering: definition of drumlin, the process of moulding by moving ice, the asymmetric shape linked to ice flow direction, and a named UK example or reference to drumlin fields.
Published by Revise Right. Use the official specification reference to check the requirements for your course. Content updated: 2026-03-23.
Move to the related lessons or back to the topic page when you need the wider sequence before exam-style practice.
A drumlin is an elongated hill of till deposited and shaped beneath a moving glacier, aligned with the direction of ice flow. The blunt, steep stoss end faces where the ice came from and the tapered lee end points where it travelled. Drumlins form groups, as in the Eden Valley in Cumbria and County Down in Northern Ireland.
A drumlin field is a large group of drumlins, also called 'basket of eggs' topography because dozens of smooth oval hills cluster together across a lowland area. The Eden Valley in Cumbria and County Down in Northern Ireland are classic UK examples.
A terminal moraine is a ridge of till at the furthest point the glacier reached; lateral moraines form along the sides of a valley glacier; ground moraine is till spread across the valley floor as the glacier retreated; and a medial moraine forms when two glaciers merge and their lateral moraines join in the middle.
A terminal moraine is a ridge of till deposited at the furthest point a glacier reached, its snout, marking the maximum extent of the ice. Terminal moraines in areas such as the Vale of York show where the ice sheet halted.
A lateral moraine is a ridge of debris deposited along the side of a valley glacier. It forms from material that fell from the valley walls onto the ice and from material the glacier eroded from the valley sides by plucking and abrasion.
An outwash plain, or sandur, is a broad, flat area beyond the terminal moraine where meltwater streams spread sediment away from the glacier. As the meltwater loses energy, it drops the heaviest material first, so coarse gravels and sands lie near the snout and fine silts and clays further away.
A medial moraine forms when two glaciers merge and their lateral moraines join in the middle of the combined glacier. Other types include terminal, lateral and ground moraine.
Ground moraine is a layer of till spread across the valley floor as a glacier retreats, creating an undulating, hummocky landscape. It is one of the four types of moraine, with terminal, lateral and medial moraine.
Till is dropped directly by the ice and is completely unsorted, with boulders, gravel, sand and clay jumbled together; it forms moraines and drumlins. Outwash is carried and deposited by meltwater streams beyond the glacier snout and is sorted, with coarser particles near the ice and finer ones further away.
During the Pleistocene epoch, repeated glaciations covered much of Britain. In uplands such as the Lake District, Snowdonia and the Scottish Highlands, erosional landforms dominate: corries, aretes, U-shaped valleys and ribbon lakes. In lowlands, depositional landforms such as drumlins, moraines and outwash plains record past ice sheets.
A drumlin shows the direction of ice flow because its long axis lies parallel to the flow, its steep, blunt stoss end faces the direction the ice came from, and its tapered, gentle lee end points the way the ice was travelling.
Outwash is sorted because meltwater streams lose energy moving away from the glacier and deposit the heaviest material first. Coarse gravels and sands settle close to the snout, while fine silts and clays are carried further, unlike till, which is dropped unsorted by the ice.
UK uplands such as the Lake District, Snowdonia and the Scottish Highlands are dominated by erosional landforms like corries, aretes, U-shaped valleys and ribbon lakes, while lowlands beyond the ice margin are dominated by deposition, such as drumlin fields, moraines and outwash plains. Ice both removed and deposited material.
The Pleistocene epoch lasted from roughly 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago, when repeated glaciations covered much of Britain. Its erosional and depositional processes left landforms that define UK upland and lowland landscapes today.