When did the most recent ice age end?
We're still in it.
Geographers define and ice age as a period in the earth's history when there are polar ice caps. Our current climate is an interglacial period. This doesn't mean "between ice ages." It is used to describe the period within the ice age when the ice retreats because of warmer temperatures.
Our interglacial period started ten thousand years ago, in what we think is the fourth ice age.
When it will end is anyone's guess; ideas about the duration of the interglacial period range from twelve thousand to fifty thousand years (without allowing for man-made influence).
The Little Ice Age, which began in 1500 and lasted 300 years, saw the average temperature in europe drop by one degree Celsius. It also coincided with a period of extremely low sunspot activity, though whether the two are linked is still being argued over.
During this period, the Arctic ice sheet extended so far south that Eskimos are recorded as reaching Scotland on kayaks on six different occasions, and the inhabitants of Orkney had to fight off a disoriented polar bear.
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