Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Tay

Tay, the largest river in Scotland; issues from Loch Tay, in Perthshire, and flows 54 miles E. and SE. by a circuitous course, and amid beautiful scenery, past Aberfeldy, Dunkeld, and Perth to the Firth of Tay. Its principal tributaries are the Earn, Almond, Shochie, and Bran, on the right bank; and the Isla with its affluent the Ericht, the Tummel with its affluent the Garry, and the Lyon, on the left bank. Loch Tay extends 14½ miles NE. from Killin to Kenmore, where it discharges the river Tay, and is from ½ to 11/8 mile broad. It receives at Killin the waters of the Dochart (25 miles long), which is also regarded as a head-stream of the main river, and those of the Lochay. The Firth of Tay extends 24½ miles NE. from the confluence of the Tay and the Earn to the North Sea, widens to 3½ miles at the broadest part, and separates the counties of Perth and Forfar on the N. from Fife on the S.; has a light-vessel at Abertay Sands, and lighthouses at Buddon Ness and Tayport. The entire length of the river Tay, from the source of its remotest head-stream - the Tummel - to the mouth of the estuary, is 120 miles, and its basin area is 2400 square miles. The salmon fisheries of loch, river, and estuary, are of the greatest importance.


(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "river"   (ADL Feature Type: "rivers")
Administrative units: Perthshire ScoCnty
Place: Tayside

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