Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

FORTH
in the narrows between North and South Queensferry,
when for a length of nearly 2 miles there is a trough
more than 20 fathoms deep, at one point attaining the
maximum of 42 fathoms. The tides are so affected
by conflicting currents, by islands and shallows, and
by the irregularities of the shores, as to vary much
both in respect of velocity and time. The flowing tide,
over the sands of Leith, runs 1$ knot an hour, and
appears to flow for only four hours, while the ebbing
tide continues for eight hours. The tides on the N
shore, opposite these Roads, run from 3 to 3^ knots an
hour, and have an equal duration in flow and in ebb.
The flowing tide, from Kinghorn Ness to the promontory
W of Aberdour, runs at the rate of 3J knots an hour;
through the contraction at Queensferry it runs at the
rate of 5 knots an hour, and, 6 miles above that con-
traction, at from 2 to 1\ miles an hour. The ebb
tide, at about 6 miles above Queensferry, runs at the
same rate as the flow tide; but through the contraction
at Queensferry it runs at the rate of 6 knots an hour ;
and in Inverkeithing Bay, immediately E of that con-
traction, turns for two hours to the W at the rate of 1^
knot an hour. The estuary presents safe roadsteads at
Elie Roads, Leith Roads, Burntisland Roads, Inver-
keithing Bay, St Margaret's Hope immediately above
Queensferry, and various other localities. It has good
docks at Leith, Granton, Borrowstounness, Grangemouth,
and Burntisland ; good harbours at Dunbar, Anstruther,
Cockenzie, and Fisherrow; and numerous harbours of
varying character and capacity along the N shore from
Crail to Alloa. The navigation was long regarded as
dangerous ; but, though shoally in various localities,
and somewhat obstructed by sandbanks, it is now, with
the aid of lighthouses on the islands of May and Inch-
keith and of accurately drawn and minute charts, so
signally safe as rarely to be marked with a shipwreck.
Numerous industrial works are on the shores, from Alloa
and Borrowstounness downwards; vast repositories of
coal, limestone, and ironstone are so near it, on both
shores and westward from its head, as to send down
much of their output to it for shipment; and all these,
along with the extensive and productive fisheries of
Leith and Anstruther districts, attract large num-
bers of vessels of all sizes.
The basin of the Forth is estimated at 645 square
miles. The length of the river and its estuary, mea-
sured in a direct line from the Duchray's source on Ben
Lomond to the entrance, is only 80 miles ; but, follow-
ing the bends of river and estuary, 117 J miles, viz.,
52J to Stirling, 12| thence to Alloa, and 52 thence to
the German Ocean. The chief tributaries above Alloa
are, on the right bank, Eelty Water, Boquhan Burn,
and Bannock Burn; on the left bank, Goodie Water, the
Teith, Allan Water, and the Devon ; and the chief
streams flowing into the estuary are, on the right side, the
Carron, the Avon, the Almond, the Water of Leith, and
the Esk; on the left side, the Leven. The river contains
salmon, grilse, sea-trout, trout, pike, perch, and eels ; and
its salmon are large and delicate. Several good salmon
casts for the angler occur about the influx of the Teith ;
but all the salmon fisheries below that point are held
strictly as private property, and are let under stringent
conditions. The estuary abounds with white fish of all
kinds; and large fleets of fishing-boats from Newhaven,
Fisherrow, Buckhaven, Anstruther, and other places
procure abundant supplies for the daily markets of
neighbouring and district towns. Of late years the use
of steam trawlers has been introduced, and, while the
catch is thus increased, the older style of fishers allege
that the spawn and spawning beds are injured by the
trawl nets. Herrings generally shoal into the Firth
once a year, and have in some years yielded a prodi-
gious produce; but they are esteemed in some respects
inferior in quality to the herrings of the western coast.
The extensive sand beds, together with immense quan-
tities of seaweed, are favourable to the deposit of the
spawn of fishes; and mussels, contributing so largely
to the support of the finny tribes, are very abundant.
Oysters formerly lay in beds adjacent to Oramond and
FORTH BRIDGE
Inch Mickery, as well as near Prestonpans; but they
were over-fished, almost to comparative exhaustion; and
they are now inferior, both in quality and in size, to the
oysters obtained in many other parts of the British
coasts.
An ancient ferry crosses the river at Queensferry, and
connects on the S side with a branch from the Edin-
burgh and Glasgow section of the North British railway
at Ratho station, and with a line to Dunfermline on the
N. A still more important ferry is that from Granton
to Burntisland, which, until the opening of the Forth
Bridge, formed the link between the southern and the
northern portions of the North British Railway system.
Both of the ferries named are in the hands of the North
British Railway Company, but have been largely super-
seded by the great bridge. In former times the Queen's
Ferry was on the line of the Great North Road, the
mails crossing here en route for Kinross, Perth, and the
North. The ferry between Leith or Newhaven and
Kirkcaldy or Pettycur has long since been abandoned,
as has also the 'Earl's Ferry,' from a place in Fife still
bearing that name, to the nearest point in East Lothian.
Many projects have been made to bridge the Forth or to
tunnelit, the latter proposal beingdescribedinseveral pam-
phlets published early in the present century. Although
there are, with the railway bridges, several structures now
spanning the Forth there, the bridge of Stirling was at
one time an important because almost solitary access to
the North. A bridge is known to have existed here six
centuries ago, and some remains of it, about J mile
above the existing ' old bridge, ' are still, it is said, to be
seen. Below Stirling a bridge was erected (1882-83) by
the Alloa Railway Company, to connect with the South
Alloa Branch of the Caledonian railway. The main
feature of this bridge is a swing-opening by which the
river, at high water, remains navigable by steamers
and small vessels to Stirling as heretofore. Before the
Forth bridge undertaking was begun, several plans had
been drawn up for improving the crossing at Queens-
ferry and below. See article Forth Bridge.
The Firth of Forth has played a not unimportant
part in the troublous history of Scotland, having been
visited by hostile fleets at various times from 83 A.D.
downwards. In 1549, the island of Inchkeith was seized
and fortified by the English under the Duke of Somer-
set, from whom it was taken by the French commander,
then in alliance with the Scots. In 1567, an act was
passed for the demolition of the fort on Inchkeith, and
though this was not fully carried out (since Johnson and
Boswell found the fort in fair preservation in 1773), the
Firth for three centuries remained defenceless. At
the entrance to Leith harbour a Martello tower was
erected, and there is, nominally, a fort in that town,
but the former is disused, and both are inadequate for
defence against modern ordnance. After many years'
agitation, steps were in 1880-81 taken for the construc-
tion of three batteries on Inchkeith, and one on King-
horn Ness, which, mounted with heavy guns, completely
command the channels N and S of the island. — Ord.
Sur., shs. 38, 39, 31, 32, 40, 33, 41, 1857-71. See
David M. Home's Estuary of the Forth and adjoining
Districts viewed geologically (Edinb. 1871), and works
cited under Fife and Stirlingshire.
Forth Bridge, a stupendous steel cantilever railway
bridge connecting the northern and southern shores of
the Firth of Forth at Queensferry. Before this under-
taking was designed several plans for improving the
crossing at this point and below it were drawn up. As
far back as 1818 it was proposed to span the Forth here
by a cast-iron suspension bridge 90 feet above high
water, the line of which was to begin at high-tide mark
'near Newall's Inn,' to traverse the island of Garvie at a
point, and terminate at the Battery Rock on the north
shore. In 1851 Sir Thomas Bouch perfected the 'float-
ing railway ' between Granton and Burntisland, a plan
in which, by the use of adjustable loading apparatus
and of large flat steamers, the railway company was
enabled to carry goods trains over the ferry without
breaking bulk; and this system remained in operation
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