Sites such as Gough's Cave in Somerset, dated at 12,000 BCE, provide evidence suggesting that humans returned to Britain towards the end of this ice age, in a warm period known as the Dimlington interstadial although further extremes of cold right before the final thaw may have caused them to leave again and then return repeatedly.

The environment during this ice age period would have been a largely treeless tundra, eventually replaced by a gradually warmer climate, perhaps reaching 17 degrees Celsius (62.6 Fahrenheit) in summer which encouraged the expansion of birch trees as well as shrub and grasses.

The first distinct culture of the Upper Palaeolithic in Britain is what archaeologists call the Creswellian industry, with leaf-shaped points probably used as arrowheads.

It produced more refined flint tools but also made use of bone, antler, shell, amber, animal teeth, and mammoth ivory.

These were fashioned into tools but also jewelry and rods of uncertain purpose.