Talk:River Tay

All the names are River Almond, River Isla, River Braan, River Tummel, River Lyon; River Spey, River Dee and River Tweed. Note that in wikifying the page the links have incorrectly attributed the towns and villages to being in England. These towns are in Scotland.

"The main tributaries of the River Tay are the Almond, Isla, Braan, Tummel and Lyon. Like the Spey, Dee and Tweed, the Tay is a famous salmon river." I'm not qulified to provide links to these rivers mentioned here from the article. Are they the River Almond or Almond River, etc.? Could someone who knows more about these rivers fill in the appropriate links? -Frecklefoot

"The highest ever flood at Perth occurred in 1814, when *ice* the river rose 7 m above the usual level, partly caused by a blockage of ice under the Smeaton Bridge" Looks like the first "ice" here needs to be removed. - Dduck

River Tay article states it is 7th longest river in the UK but the Rivers of Great Britain article states it is 6th; anyone know which is correct? River Wye has simular problem - Carlwev 03:46, 9 December 2006 (UTC).


 * Rivers of Great Britain has only just been changed - to remove the River Aire from 6th. Finavon 14:58, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Water catchment area
This is a UK river so it is appropriate to use UK terminology - see reference 1 of Drainage basin. The full term Water catchment area might be better, and is already redirected. Finavon 21:02, 2 January 2007 (UTC)


 * "The main tributaries of the River Tay are the Rivers Almond, Isla, Earn, Shockie, Ordie, Braan, Tummel and Lyon."


 * Suggest you replace with:

The main tributaries of the River Tay are the Rivers Earn, Braan, Tummel, Almond, Isla, Shee, Garry, Tilt, Lochay, Lyon, Dochart, Fillan, Errochty, Ericht, Blackwater, Ardle, Turret, Gaur, Ruchill and Dean Water. Significant stillwaters include the Lochs Tay, Earn, Tummel, Rannoch, Laidon, Garry, Ericht, Errochty, Faskally, Dochart and Lubhair. Significant salmon producing burns include the Shochie, Ordie and Machny.

The River Tay boasts the highest flow of any river in the United Kingdom, being the equivalent of the Rivers Thames and Severn combined, as well as holding the UK record for the largest atlantic salmon salmo salar a fish of 63lb caught by Miss Ballantyne in 1922. --Taysider 17:56, 1 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Suggesting to whom? Remember, it's the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, so go ahead. - Dudesleeper · Talk 22:17, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Bridges
I thought it might be useful to list all of the bridges that cross the Tay from its source to its mouth at the North Sea. I'm going to list those that cross it in Perth in the relevant article but I might not be able to do it here for a while, so anyone else is welcome to. - Dudesleeper · Talk 11:44, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Source
I reverted an edit today changing the source to be Ben Lui. I accidentally marked my revert as due to vandalism, whereas of course that was a good faith edit. I reverted it because it doesn't agree with the Origin article that explains how to interpret that field in the infobox. I apologise for any confusion. Merenta (talk) 19:38, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Map of the course of River Tay
Is there a decent map of the course of River Tay that we migth add to provide context for this article? N2e (talk) 23:55, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

Amount of water
When I watched the programme Coast_(TV_series) on April 24 2013, a fact disclosed on this programme was that the River Tay secretes more water into the sea than the Thames and Severn combined. This is an interesting piece of information which should go in this article somewhere. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 20/w:18, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I heard the same claim on TV recently and wondered what the figures were. I was mildly surprised by the claim, but not incredulous, as the highlands of Scotland get a lot more rain (per unit area) than the south of England.  Also, the size of the Thames and Severn estuaries could be misleading, as these are enlarged by the downward movement of southern England since the last Ice Age.  Still, it would be nice to see the figures.109.148.240.136 (talk) 11:43, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Meaning of name?
Could we get some consideration of what "Tatha" means? Even if the consensus is "no-one really knows", it's a bit jarring that the history of this storied watercourse starts in the 19th century. I consulted the entry for Loch Tay on this point as well; no light there, either. Laodah 19:45, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Discharge
Where did you source the discharge information for the Tay? Please provide a source. I work for SEPA's flooding department and the highest discharge SEPA has ever measured on the Tay is just under 1500 cubic meters per second, significantly lower than what is stated here.--Colinmotox11 (talk) 20:18, 9 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Then edit the article! That's how Wikipedia works...  Catfish  Jim  and the soapdish  11:46, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

On Wikipedia, users are encouraged to post on the talk page and seek agreement before making edits such as that. Colinmotox11 (talk) 19:10, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Navigation
The transport section would logically include discussion of ship or boat movements on the river, but only ferries seem to have any mention: conversely, if there are rapids or waterfalls that inhibit such use, they too would be notable. Are there canals and locks? Diversions or dams for water mills or hydro-electric reservoirs? Historically this would have been key to commerce, defence, and migration, to name but a few. LeadSongDog come howl!  15:15, 22 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I’m confused; you’d like to see mentions of the things the river doesn’t have? Seasider53 (talk) 16:34, 22 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I would expect to see a statement on the extent of navigability, both by ships and by small boats. On most rivers this is limited by various obstructions, both natural and artificial. Such obstructions may in turn be artificially bypassed or removed. The construction or removal of these obstructions or bypasses are historically relevant events for the communities along a river, just as they are for bridges: access to and from the sea is access to and from the world, which in turn drives local economies. LeadSongDog come howl!  14:22, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

Length
There appears to be some confusion in the article around giving the length for the river between the stated source at Ben Lui and its mouth. The coordinates in the infobox for the mouth are for its confluence with the River Earn at the western end of the Firth. Now I have painstakingly measured the length to that point and it emerges as 154km / 96 miles. The length given for the Tay in the info box is 188km / 117 miles, which would put its mouth some way east of the A92 bridge, in fact 4km east of Broughty Castle/Tayport narrows which is roughly off Fife's Tentsmuir Point. This is almost the 190km quoted for its length in the body of the article. I measure the total length to the Tay Road Bridge as 179km / 111 miles and to Tentsmuir as 187.5km / 116.5miles which ties in very closely with the quoted fugure BUT that has to be tied into the right location being described. I'd be confident of the accuracy of my figures to within better than 1%. This is of course original research on my part so cannot be included in the article but it does at least give an idea of what a true figure should look like if and when an editor finds a suitable reference out there!

The seaward end of many British rivers is taken at the county limit which in the case of the Tay would be about 156km / 97 miles from its source, to the immediate west of Mugdrum Island. If the river is considered to end at the Earn confluence or the county limit then there is perhaps no place for the material on the rail and road bridges at Dundee (beyond a brief link) as they are far to the east of the terminus of the river 'proper'. Of course it's not quite that simple and the Firth can be considered a part of the river as well as an arm of the North Sea. cheers Geopersona (talk) 20:27, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Having found a figure in 'Headwaters', I've entered that into the main body of the text and into the infobox but they convert differently and one is metric first, the other imperial first - the 'Headwaters' reference gives the figure as 193km or 120 miles. That needs sorting yet.Geopersona (talk) 09:53, 11 August 2022 (UTC)