Hydrology and Earth System Sciences www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net 1027-5606 1607-7938 12 4 2008 10.5194/hess-12-1065-2008 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/12/1065/2008/ http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/12/1065/2008/hess-12-1065-2008.html http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/12/1065/2008/hess-12-1065-2008.pdf 1065 1074 2008-08-05 Isotope hydrology of dripwaters in a Scottish cave and implications for stalagmite palaeoclimate research L. Fuller A. Baker I. J. Fairchild i.j.fairchild@bham.ac.uk C. Spötl A. Marca-Bell P. Rowe P. F. Dennis School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK Department of Geology and Palaeontology, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK Dripwater hydrology and hydrogeochemistry is particularly useful in constraining the meaning of speleothem palaeoclimate archives, for example using δ¹⁸O signatures. Here, we calibrate the relationship between δ¹⁸O in precipitation, percolation waters and contemporary calcite deposits, at Tartair cave, Sutherland, NW Scotland, an Atlantic site sensitive to regional changes both of temperature and precipitation. Monthly precipitation displayed a 7.1‰ range in δ¹⁸O, a negative linear relationship with rainfall amount, and no correlation with temperature. 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