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The Scottish watershed is the 
Although the concept of geographical watersheds is common, the first unequivocal reference to the Scottish watershed is to be found in Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of 1884, in which the entry defines the northern terminus as being at
The Scottish watershed is the drainage divide
A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a sing ...
in Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
that separates river systems that flow to the east into the North Sea from those that flow to the west and north into the Atlantic Ocean. At a point on the summit of Ben Lomond
Ben Lomond (Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Laomainn, 'Beacon Mountain'), , is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. Situated on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, it is the most southerly of the Munros. Ben Lomond lies within the Ben Lomond National M ...
for example, looking west all water flows to the Firth of Clyde
The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles (it is 164 metres deep at its deepest). The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic ...
, and looking east all water flows into the Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south.
Name
''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meanin ...
.
Similarly Cumbernauld
Cumbernauld (; gd, Comar nan Allt, meeting of the streams) is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated ...
is a point on this line and arguably its Gaelic name has, for hundreds of years, reflected this fact. There is some dispute however about interpretation of the Gaelic phrase. The line joining all such points in Scotland is the Scottish watershed.
Although the concept of geographical watersheds is common, the first unequivocal reference to the Scottish watershed is to be found in Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of 1884, in which the entry defines the northern terminus as being at