The Firth of Tay (; gd, Linne Tatha) is a

firth Firth is a word in the English and Scots languages used to denote various coastal waters in the United Kingdom, predominantly within Scotland. In the Northern Isles, it more usually refers to a smaller inlet. It is linguistically cognate to ''f ...

on the east coast of Scotland, into which the

River Tay The River Tay ( gd, Tatha, ; probably from the conjectured Brythonic ''Tausa'', possibly meaning 'silent one' or 'strong one' or, simply, 'flowing') is the longest river in Scotland and the seventh-longest in Great Britain. The Tay originates i ...

(Scotland's largest river in terms of flow) empties. The firth is surrounded by four council areas:

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross ( sco, Pairth an Kinross; gd, Peairt agus Ceann Rois) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Fife, Highland ...

City of Dundee Dundee City Council is the Local government in Scotland, local government authority for the Dundee, City of Dundee. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. History Dundee City became a single-tier Councils ...

, and Angus. Its maximum width (at Invergowrie) is . Two bridges span the firth: the

Tay Road Bridge The Tay Road Bridge ( gd, Drochaid-rathaid na Tatha) carries the A92 road across the Firth of Tay from Newport-on-Tay in Fife to Dundee in Scotland, just downstream of the Tay Rail Bridge. At around , it is one of the longest road bridges in Eu ...

and the Tay Rail Bridge. The marshy Mugdrum Island is the only major island in the firth. The Firth of Tay in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

was discovered in 1892–93 by Captain Thomas Robertson of the Dundee

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

expedition and named by him after the one in Scotland. He also named nearby Dundee Island in honour of the main city on the firth.

Natural heritage

The Firth of Tay and the

Eden Estuary The River Eden is a river in Fife in Scotland, and is one of Fife's two principal rivers, along with the Leven. It is nearly long and has a fall of around . It flows from Burnside, near the border with Perth & Kinross, then slowly across the ...

(which lies to the south of the firth) were designated as

Special Protection Area A Special Protection Area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certa ...

s on 2 February 2000, as

Ramsar wetlands The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...

a few months later (on 28 July 2000), and as Special Areas of Conservation five years later (on 17 March 2005). Several parts of the firth are within a

site of special scientific interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

– Inner Tay Estuary, Monifieth Bay, Tayport-Tentsmuir Coast. The Invergowrie Bay section of the firth is a local nature reserve. The Firth of Tay is noted for its extensive sand and

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...

s, its population of common seals, and its wintering birds (such as oystercatcher, bar-tailed godwit, shelduck and velvet scoter). There is good access to much of the shoreline, and the firth offers many good wildlife-watching opportunities. The

reed bed A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

on the north shore of the inner estuary in the firth is about 15 km long; it is thought to be the most extensive reedbed in Britain.

Towns and villages along the coast

Balmerino Balmerino is a small village and former monastic centre in Fife, Scotland. It is the home of Balmerino Abbey and the former abbots of Balmerino who were great regional landlords. It became a secular lordship in 1605 when the abbey's lands w ...

* Broughty Ferry *

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

* Invergowrie * Kingoodie * Monifieth * Newburgh *

Newport-on-Tay Newport-on-Tay is a small town in the north-east of Fife in Scotland, acting as a commuter suburb for Dundee. The Fife Coastal Path passes through Newport-on-Tay. The area itself is surrounded by views of the two bridges that cross the River Ta ...

* Tayport * Woodhaven * Wormit

Places of interest

Balmerino Abbey Balmerino Abbey, or St Edward's Abbey, in Balmerino, Fife, Scotland, was a Cistercian monastic community which has been ruinous since the 16th century. History It was founded from 1227 to 1229 by monks from Melrose Abbey with the patronage ...

* Broughty Castle Museum * Mugdrum Island * Tay Rail Bridge *

Tentsmuir Forest Tentsmuir Forest is in north east Fife, Scotland. Covering some , the forest was originally sand dunes and moorland before acquisition by the Forestry Commission in the 1920s. The forest consists mainly of Scots pine and Corsican pine, and is ...

Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve (NNR) is located southeast of Tayport in Fife, Scotland. The reserve is made up of three parts, encompassing Morton Lochs, Tentsmuir Point and Tayport Heath, and is managed by NatureScot. The different sections ...

References

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Tay Tay may refer to: People and languages * Tay (name), including lists of people with the given name, surname and nickname * Tay people, an ethnic group of Vietnam ** Tày language *Atayal language, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan (ISO 639 ...

Bodies of water of the North Sea River Tay Ramsar sites in Scotland Landforms of Perth and Kinross Landforms of Fife Landforms of Dundee Landforms of Angus, Scotland