Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

TAYNTJILT
Taynuilt, a hamlet in Muckairn parish, Argyllshire,
near the southern shore of Loch Etive, with a station
on the Callander and Oban railway, 15j miles E by N
of Oban. It has an inn and a post office, with money
order, savings bank, and telegraph departments.
Tayport. See Ferry-Port-on-Craig.
Tay, The, a river draining the greater part of Perth-
shire and passing off to the sea between Forfarshire and
Fifeshire. It issues from Loch Tay, or rather begins
there to take the name of Tay; but it is really formed
by two great head-streams which rise among the Gram-
pians on the mutual border of Perth and Argyll shires.
The northern stream bears successively the names of the
Ba, the Gauir, and the Ttjmmel; and, in its progress,
it forms, by expansion of its waters, the three great
lakes of Lydooh or Laidon, Rannoch, and Tummel.
It rises at an altitude of 2309 feet, within \ mile of an
affluent of the Etive, and 4J miles SSW of Kingshouse
Inn; and thence it winds 58J miles east-north-eastward
and south-south-eastward — viz., 29J miles to its efflux
from Loch Rannoch (668 feet), 15J thence to its efflux
from Loch Tummel (480 feet), 4§ thence to the Garry's
confluence, and 9J thence to its own confluence with
the Tay. It traverses or bounds the parishes of Glen-
orchy (in Argyllshire) and Fortingall, Dull, Blair
Athole, Moulin, and Logierait. The southern one of
the great head-streams bears successively the names of
the FlLLAN, the Dochart, and the Tay; and traverses,
in its progress, Loch Dochart and Loch Tay. Rising
at an altitude of 2980 feet on the northern side of
Benloy, at the boundary of Eillin with Argyllshire,
it flows 56f miles east-north-eastward — viz., 25 \ miles
to the head of Loch Tay, 14£ miles through the lake,
and 17 miles from its foot to a confluence with the
Tummel at an altitude of 185 feet. It bounds or tra-
verses the parishes of Eillin, Eenmore, Fortingall, Dull,
Weem, Logierait, and Little Dunkeld, and receives the
Lochy, the Lyon, and other streams. From its junction
with the Tummel to its junction with the Earn, where
it begins to expand into an estuary, the Tay winds 36|
miles southward, eastward, southward, and eust-south-
eastward; and over this part of its course, it has on
its right bank Little Dunkeld, Einclaven, Auchter-
gaven, Redgorton, Tibbermore, Perth, and Rhynd, —
and on its left bank Logierait, Dunkeld and Dowally,
Caputh, Cargill, St Martins, Scone, Einnoull, Ein-
fauns, and St Madoes. As an estuary, it extends 24J
miles from the mouth of the Earn to the German
Ocean; has for the first 15 miles a breadth of from
3J furlongs to 3j miles, and the direction of NE by
E; has over the other 9J miles a prolonged contraction
of from 7 furlongs to 1J mile, and a prevailing easterly
direction; and separates Abernethy in Perthshire and
the parishes of Newburgh, Abdie, Dunbog, Flisk, Bal-
merino, Forgan, and Ferry-Port in Fife on its right
bank, from St Madoes, Errol, Inchture, and Long-
forgan in Perthshire, and Liff and Benvie, Dundee,
Monifieth, and Barry in Forfarshire on its left. Its
entire length of course, jointly as a river and as an
estuary, is thus, if measured from the source of the Ba,
119g — if measured from the source of the Fillan, 118
miles.
The tributaries of the Tay, even excluding the
secondary ones, are so numerous, that only the principal
must be named. Those of the northern great head-
branch are only two — the Ericht, which falls into Loch
Rannoch, and the Garry, which brings along with it the
Edendon, the Erichdie, the Bruar, and the Tilt, and
falls into the Tummel a little below Eillieorankie.
Those of the southern great head-branch are also but
two — the Lochy, which joins the Dochart at the village
of Eillin, and 'the Lyon, which brings along with it
Glenmore Water, and joins the Tay 2| miles below
the foot of Loch Tay. Those of the united stream are
the Bran, on the right bank, opposite the town of Dun-
keld; the Isla, swollen by the Dean, the Ericht, and
other streams, and entering on the left bank, near Car-
gill station; the Shochie, on the right bank, at Lun-
carty; the Almond, on the same bank, 2 \ miles above
TAT, THE
Perth; and the Earn, also on the same bank, at the
commencement of the estuary, or 2J miles above the
town jjif Newburgh. Those of the estuary are all in-
considerable, the largest being Dighty Water, which
disembogues itself from Forfarshire, If mile below
Broughty Ferry.
From the vicinity of Broughty Ferry on the one shore,
and Ferry-Port-on-Craig on the other, to the mouth of
the estuary, there is a sweep of sandbank, called Barry
or Goa Sands on the north side, and Abertay Sands
on the south. The opening or breadth of channel
beneath the two sides of the sandbank varies from 5J
furlongs to lg mile; and the depth of water is about 3
fathoms, but, higher up the firth, increases to 6. Sand-
banks occur elsewhere, especially a large and shifting
one opposite Dundee; but they have all been rendered
harmless to navigation by means of dredging, buoys,
lighthouses, and charts. The estuary in general is
shallow, and receives much dibris from the steady and
large current of the river. Though it cannot compare
in spaciousness and some other properties with the
Forth, it is not a little commodious, and may be con-
sidered as, over large part of its extent, a continuous
harbour. The tide flows to a point about 2 miles above
Perth; and, in consequence of improvements made in
the channel, vessels of 200 tons can pass up to Perth
harbour. The Tay Bridge is described under Dundee;
and the unrivalled salmon fisheries of the river and
estuary are treated of in our supplementary article on
the Fisheries of Scotland.
The extent of surface drained by the Tay and its
tributaries is computed at 2400 square miles, and
that of the Spey, the entirely Scottish river next
to it in size, at 1190 square miles. The geographic
positions and character of the district whence most
of the waters are drawn being in the case of the
two rivers very similar, the Tay may be supposed
to discharge about twice as much water as the Spey.
Dr Anderson, making a nice measurement for a judicial
purpose, determined the quantity of water which, in the
mean state of the river, flows through a section of it
opposite Perth, to be at the rate of 3640 cubic feet per
second. The river, as represented on a map, or imagined
after a survey of the vast district which composes its basin,
appears emphatically 'the many-headed Tay;' and, in
consequence of its great feeders coming down like the
main arteries on a half-moon-shaped leaf, it has less
inequality in its stream than occurs in either the Spey
or any other of our Highland rivers. The variety of
its origin, too, affords such a compensation of rain as
always, except in seasons of extreme drought, to yield a
suffioient bulk and altitude of water for the occupying
of its path, and the beautifying of its landscape; while
the wide variety in the relative distance of its sources,
prevents its floods, however high, from being as sudden
as those of the Spey, the Aberdeenshire Dee, and some
other upland streams. Yet, owing to the gradual but
great extension of the system of draining which is pro-
secuted on arable grounds and on reclaimable mosses
and moorlands, the river has become considerably less
equable than at a former period : it swells during great
floods to a magnitude which never in former days
belonged to it; it subsides during a continued drought
to a corresponding diminution of volume; and in its
ordinary or mean state it has very visibly lost some of
its ancient greatness and importance. Though averagely
charged at Perth, as we have seen, with 3640 cubic feet
of water per second, it was reduced in the course of the
summer of 1819 to 457 cubic feet, and at the close of the
summer of 1835 to a still smaller volume.
Much of the country which now forms the seaboard
of the estuary, and especially the whole of the Carse of
Gowrie and the lower part of Strathtay, exhibit evidence
of having at a comparatively recent period lain under
the sea, and been gradually raised above its level by
depositions from the Tay. After the Carse of Gowrie
became dry land, too, the Tay seems for a long series of
years to have made a circle round its N side, along the
foot of the Sidlaw Hills, entering what was then the
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