What is Firth?

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Firth is the Scots word used to denote various coastal waters in Scotland. It is usually a large sea bay, which may be part of an estuary, or just an inlet, or even a strait. It is cognate to fjord, which has a more narrow sense in English, whereas a firth would most likely be called a fjord if it were situated in Scandinavia. Bodies of water named "firths" tend to be more common on the east coast, or in the southwest of the country, although the Firth of Lorne is an exception to this. The Highland coast contains numerous estuaries, straits and inlets of a similar kind, not called "firth", e.g. the Minch, and Loch Torridon; these are often called sea lochs.

A firth is generally the result of ice age glaciation and is very often associated with a large river, where erosion caused by the tidal effects of incoming sea water passing upriver has widened the riverbed to an estuary. Demarkation can be rather vague. The Firth of Clyde is sometimes thought to include the estuary as far upriver as Dumbarton, but the Ordnance Survey map shows the change from river to firth occurring off Port Glasgow, while locally the change is held to be at the Tail of the Bank where the river crosses a sandbar off Greenock at the junction to the Gare Loch, or even further west at Gourock point.

However, some firths are exceptions. The Cromarty Firth on the east coast of Scotland, for example, resembles a large loch with only a relatively small outlet to the sea and the Solway Firth and the Moray Firth are more like extremely large bays. The Pentland Firth is a strait rather than a bay or an inlet.

The Firths on the west coast of Scotland from north to south

• Firth of Lorne (northernmost, connects with the Moray Firth via the
• Great Glen lochs, the Caledonian Canal and Loch Ness at Inverness.
• Lochs adjoining the Firth: Loch Lochy, Loch Linnhe, Loch Leven, Loch Oich.
• Places: Oban, Fort William.
• Islands: Isle of Mull, Lismore and Kerrera.
• Firth of Clyde (continuing from the River Clyde estuary)
• Sea lochs adjoining the Firth of Clyde: Gare Loch, Loch Long, Holy Loch, Loch Striven, Loch Riddon off the Kyles of Bute, Loch Fyne and Campbeltown Loch.
• Places: Helensburgh, Port Glasgow, Greenock, Gourock, Dunoon, Rothesay, Wemyss Bay, Largs, Brodick, Ardrossan, Troon, Ayr, Girvan and Campbeltown. Note that Glasgow is at the tidal limit of the River Clyde, and Clydebank, the Erskine Bridge and Dumbarton are on the river estuary as it widens out towards Port Glasgow.
• Islands: Bute, Cumbrae, Arran
• Solway Firth (inlet with the rivers Eden, Esk and Nith).
• The Firth is off the Solway Coast.
• Places: Carlisle, England on the River Eden, Annan and Gretna, both in Scotland. Luce Bay, Wigtown, St Bees, Aspatria

The Firths on the east coast of Scotland from north to south

These are connected to, or form part of, the North Sea.

• Dornoch Firth (northernmost of the eastern firths)
• Places: Dornoch, Dornoch Bridge (impressive road bridge, half a mile long), Bonar Bridge, Kyle of Sutherland, Tain, Scotland, Portmahomack on Tarbat Ness (fishing village facing west to northwest on the east coast).
• Rivers: Oykel, Cassley, Shin and Carron
• Headland: Tarbat Ness.
• Cromarty Firth (loch-type firth with relatively narrow opening to the sea). The Firth runs out into the Moray Firth.
• Places: Cromarty, Dingwall, Invergordon.
• Rivers: Conon, Orrin, Rusdale, Glass, Alness.
• Moray Firth and Beauly Firth (a loch-type firth) connected with the Firth of Inverness. The Firth of Inverness is rarely identified on modern maps, but forms a connection via the River Ness, Loch Ness and the other lochs of the Great Glen and stretches of the Caledonian Canal with the Firth of Lorne on the west coast of Scotland.
• Places on the Moray Firth: Inverness, Nairn, Fortrose, Fort George.
• Headlands: Whiteness Head, Chanonry Point, Alturlie Point.
• Places on the Beauly Firth: Beauly.
• Firth of Tay (estuary of the River Tay).
• Places: Perth, Dundee, Monifieth, Tayport, Newport on Tay.
• Rivers: Tay, Earn.
• Headland: Buddon Ness.
• Firth of Forth (estuary of the River Forth)
• Places: Edinburgh, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Falkirk, Stirling, Grangemouth, Rosyth, North Queensferry, South Queensferry, Musselburgh, Crail, Cellardyke, Anstruther, Pittenweem, St Monans, Elie, Earlsferry. It is spanned by the Forth Road Bridge, 2,512 m (8242 ft) long, and the Forth Bridge (the adjacent railway bridge), 2,498m (8,196ft) long.
• Rivers: Forth, River Avon, Water of Leith, River Almond, River Esk, River Leven
• Islands: Bass Rock, Craigleith, Eyebroughy, Fidra, Inchcolm, Inchgarvie, Inchkeith, Inchmickery, Isle of May, The Lamb

Firths on the north coast of Scotland

• The Pentland Firth. This is a strait between the Scottish mainland and the Orkney Islands.
• Places: John o' Groats, South Walls, Hoy
• Headlands: Brims Ness, Brough Ness, Duncansby Head, Dunnet Head
• Islands: Hoy, Pentland Skerries, Swona, South Ronaldsay (all generally considered to be part of Orkney); Stroma

Other similar waters in Scotland

In the Scottish Gaelic language, linne is used to refer to most of the firths above; it is also applied to the Sound of Sleat, Crowlin Sound, Cuillin Sound, Sound of Jura, Sound of Raasay, and part of Loch Linnhe.

The following is a selection of other bodies of water in Scotland which are similar to various firths, but which are not termed such -

• West coast
• Loch Broom (fjord), Loch Eriboll (fjord), Loch Fyne (fjord), Loch Hourn (fjord), Loch Tarbert, Jura (fjord), Loch Torridon (fjord); Loch Sween, a fjord, The Minch (Strait)
• East coast
• Eden Mouth (estuary, near St Andrews); Findhorn Bay, Montrose Basin (estuary/lagoon with narrow entrance); Tweed mouth (estuary, very near Scottish border)

Firths outside Scottish waters

• Firth of Flensburg, an estuary forming part of the border between Denmark and Germany
• The Firth of Thames is a bay at the mouth of the Waihou River in New Zealand

See also

• List of waterways
• Loch
• Fjord