Firth
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
lochs or kyles.
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,
Islands of the lower Firth of Clyde.
*
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.
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).
**River:
Shin.
**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 (two
loch-type firths connected with each other with Firth of
Inverness between the two). The Firth of
Inverness is rarely identified on modern maps, but it is this firth which 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 magnificent
Firth of Forth Road Bridge, 1,006m (3,300ft) long, and the
Forth Bridge, 2.498m (8,196ft) long.
**Rivers:
Forth,
Water of Leith,
River Almond, River Esk
**Islands:
Bass Rock,
Inchcolm,
Inchkeith,
Inchmickery,
Isle of MayFirths on the North Coast of Scotland
*The
Pentland Firth**Places:
John O' Groats,
South Walls, Hoy**Headlands:
Brims Ness,
Brough Ness,
Duncansby Head,
Dunnet Head**Islands:
Hoy,
Pentland Skerries,
Swona,
South Ronaldsay,
StromaOther 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;
*East coast
**
Eden Mouth (estuary, near
St Andrews);
Findhorn Bay,
Montrose Basin (estuary/lagoon with narrow entrance);
Tweed mouth (estuary, very near Scottish border)
*
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/Thames River in
New Zealand.
*Firth, as an informal way of writing FIRTH234, is a free open source programming language and a related open source game programming platform, available also at
http://www.geocities.com/atiroal.
See also:
List of waterways,
Loch,
Fjord
