Template talk:River Findhorn

The longest rivers of Scotland
As of today's date the List of rivers of Scotland has unsourced data which is copied into Template:River Clyde.

I looked at various stats and unsurprisingly there are differences in measurement, as acknowledged here and there in the Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland, which does not provide a comprehensive listing.


 * "Source 1" is the existing unsourced list.
 * "Source 2" is the Gazetteer for Scotland (2016) which is supported by the School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh and The Royal Scottish Geographical Society
 * "Source 3" is Almanac of Scotland which states "All measurements have been recalculated using data supplied by the Scottish Environmental Prptection Agency (SEPA) and ordnance survey maps as published in August 2010. Data obtained from this page prior to September 2010 is obsolete and should not be used." It is not clear who the author(s) are.

All the below are in km.

Complications: Source 3 notes for the Forth that measurement is to the "Firth of Forth at the easternmost point of Inch Garvie by the Forth Bridge" whereas Source 2 stops at the tidal waters near Stirling. Our article states that the river is 47km long but provides no source.

Part of the Tweed is in England, which source 3 notes but all seem to ignore for measurement purposes.

It is clear that Source 2 is not using 'from source to sea' measurements, but rather the length of the river that is called 'River x' e.g. "the Beauly River is formed by the meeting of the River Glass and the River Farrar at Struy" and ignores any upstream length. Source 3 however is explicitly from source to sea (and in the case of the Forth perhaps a bit more besides).

Lists:
 * All agree that the Tay is longest.
 * Source 2 has the Clyde as second longest and the Spey third, but Source 3 reveres the order.
 * All agree the Tweed is 4th and the northern Dee 5th but then things get complicated with different orders depending on where the Forth lies, and the inclusion or otherwise of the Highland rivers and southern Dee provided by source 3.

Luckily Source 3 provides fairly detailed notes which help explain some matters such as the Forth/Tay comparison used. It also explains some Source 2 anomalies e.g. why have the Beauly exclude upstream tributaries but not e.g. the Findhorn, which name is not that of its headwater streams? It's a bit of a mess. To be posted at Talk:List of rivers of Scotland soon. Ben  Mac  Dui  17:00, 9 June 2018 (UTC)

Possible solution
Use Source 3, which is comprehensive and has the advantage of detailed notes that can be checked if necessary, with the exceptions identified below and indicating both river length and river + estuary length. I have also rounded up/down the fractions. The table would need an explanatory note as drafted.

Various measurements are provided for the lengths of Scottish rivers. The table below distinguished between the river alone and the river plus tidal waters, which many sources use. In all cases the distance is for the longest distance through the catchment area not just the distance of that portion of it which the named river covers excluding upstream tributaries.