The "Great Plain" of Atlantis - was it in Doggerland?

Go to: "Doggerland Lost" on Q-Mag.org

Now, to make straight the aspect and dimensions of the "Great Plain," which we are referring to, according to Plato:

this plain had a level surface and was as a whole rectangular in shape, being 3000 stades (530 km = 330 miles) long on either side and 2000 stades (360 km = 225 miles) wide at its center, reckoning upwards from the sea. And this region, [Critias - 118b] all along the island, faced towards the South and was sheltered from the Northern blasts. And the mountains which surrounded it were at that time celebrated as surpassing all that now exist in number, magnitude and beauty; for they had upon them many rich villages of country folk, and streams and lakes and meadows which furnished ample nutriment to all the animals both tame and wild, and timber of various sizes and descriptions, abundantly sufficient for the needs of all and every craft. [Critias - 118c] Now as a result of natural forces, together with the labors of many kings which extended over many ages, the condition of the plain was this. It was originally a quadrangle, rectilinear for the most part, and elongated; and what it lacked of this shape they made right by means of a trench dug round about it. Now, as regards the depth of this trench and its breadth and length, it seems incredible that it should be so large as the account states, considering that it was made by hand, and in addition to all the other operations, but none the less we must report what we heard: it was dug out to the depth of a plethrum (ca. 30 m = almost exactly 100 feet) and to a uniform breadth of a stade (180 m = 196 yards), and since it was dug round the whole plain [Critias - 118d] its consequent length was 10,000 stades (1800 kilometers = 1120 miles).

If the dimensions of the Plain must appear awesome, nobody in his right mind can believe the veracity of these later numbers, relating to a man-made ditch! These are so far "off the chart" that they understandably undermine the credibility of all the other indications. Only Deruelle - or his alter ego Thomas - succeeds, at least, in making sense of them.

In front of his guests, gathered for apéritif, Thomas unfolds a map. The first task is to find a rectangle of 530 km by 360 km which could have stayed out of water until around 2600 BC.

Here is what north-western Europe looked like in 18,000 BC, at the end of an ice age which had lasted 70,000 years. You see, the doted line shows the present coastlines. The areas covered by the sea are in grey. The formation of ice at the expense of the oceans brought down the sea level by 120m.
We can see that the sea is 100 km to 150 km away from the present coastline of Brittany and Ireland. The English Channel and the Irish Sea were dry, but space is lacking there for our Great Plain. On the other hand, we find that the North Sea is dry all the way to the latitude of Scotland, 800km from the Netherlands, on a breadth of 500km separating England from Denmark.

A friend exclaims about the extreme flatness of this uncovered land:

"That's hardly believable! A one hundred meter rise can be swallowed in two minutes by car, and here, one would have to cover 800 km!"

"Unbelievable, indeed! All the way from the Netherlands, the ground rises only by a hand's breadth every kilometer! This is an exceptional 'geological case!' But it responds admirably to Plato's description of a Great Plain ‘flat and of a uniform level.'"

"No wonder man would have settled in such a vast territory!