Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Is the Firth of Tay a natural waterway?
The River Tay (Scottish Gaelic: Tatha) is the longest river in Scotland and the seventh-longest in the United Kingdom. The Tay originates in western Scotland on the slopes of Ben Lui (Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Laoigh), then flows easterly across the Highlands, through Loch Dochart, Loch Iubhair and Loch Tay, then continues east through Strathtay (see Strath), in the centre of Scotland, then southeasterly through Perth, where it becomes tidal, to its mouth at the Firth of Tay, south of Dundee. It is the largest river in the UK by measured discharge.[1] Its catchment is approximately 2,000 square miles (5,200km2), the Tweed's is 1,500 square miles (3,900km2) and the Spey's is 1,097 square miles (2,840km2).
The Firth of Tay and Eden Estuary were designated a Ramsar sites on 28 July 2000, as a Special Protection Area on 2 February 2000 and as a Special Area of Conservation on 17 March 2005. Several parts are within a site of special scientific interest - Inner Tay Estuary, Monifieth Bay, Tayport-Tentsmuir Coast. The Invergowrie Bay section is a local nature reserve.
The firth has one major island, the marshy Mugdrum Island.
The River Tay emerges from Loch Tay at Kenmore, and flows from there to Perth which, in historical times, was its lowest bridging point. Below Perth the river becomes tidal and enters the Firth of Tay. The largest city on the river, Dundee, lies on the north bank of the Firth. On reaching the North Sea, the River Tay has flowed 120 miles (190km) from west to east across central Scotland.
Dundee Airport () is located from the centre of Dundee, Scotland or, for navigation purposes, south of the city. It lies on the shore of the Firth of Tay and overlooks the Tay Rail Bridge.
The Tay Whale, known locally as The Monster, was a humpback whale that swam into the Firth of Tay of eastern Scotland in 1883. It was harpooned in a hunt, but escaped, and was found floating dead off Stonehaven a week later. It was towed into Dundee by a showman, John Woods, and exhibited on a train tour of Scotland and England.
Firth of Tay () is a sound or firth, long and wide, extending in a northwest–southeast direction between the northeast side of Dundee Island and the east portion of Joinville Island. It merges to the northwest with Active Sound with which it completes the separation of Dundee and Joinville Islands. It was discovered in 1892–93 by Captain Thomas Robertson of the Dundee whaling expedition and named by him after the Firth of Tay of Scotland.
In January 2010 contracts were awarded for a major expansion of offshore wind power in the seas around Scotland. Moray Offshore Renewables will develop offshore wind power in the Moray Firth, and SeaGreen Wind Energy will develop offshore wind in the Firth of Forth. These developments could lead to 1,000 new wind turbines generating nearly 5,000 MW of power. Jobs "could also be created in manufacturing, research, engineering, installation, operation and services". In July 2016, RSPB challenged development in the Firth of Forth and Firth of Tay.
Wormit ("wormwood") is a small town on the banks of the Firth of Tay in north-east Fife, Scotland. Its location at the southern end of the Tay Rail Bridge has led to it becoming a commuter suburb of Dundee. Together with Woodhaven and Newport-on-Tay, Wormit is a part of The Burgh of Newport-on-Tay. 
The Eden Estuary is a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and, along with the Firth of Tay was designated a Ramsar site on 28 July 2000.
The Firth of Tay (Scottish Gaelic: Linne Tatha) is a firth in Scotland between the council areas of Fife, Perth and Kinross, the City of Dundee and Angus, into which Scotland's largest river in terms of flow, the River Tay empties. The firth has a maximum width of at Invergowrie.
This is a list of waterways, defined as navigable rivers, canals, estuaries, lakes, or firths. In practice, and depending on the language, the term "waterway" covers maritime or inland transport routes, as suggested by "way". Wherever a free-flowing river cannot bear load-carrying vessels, the correct term is "watercourse", with no connotation of use for transportation of cargo. To be of practical use, the list distinguishes international maritime waterways (including ship canals), international inland waterways, then inland waterways, including canals and large lakes.
The natural barrier of the Firth of Forth had for centuries impeded transport between Edinburgh and Fife, and points north. The Firth of Tay presented another barrier further north, and the most expeditious route from Edinburgh to Dundee and beyond was a coastal steamer from Leith. Intermediate locations were served by ferry crossing the Forth, but the harbours available were primitive and the crossings in many cases were hazardous. A number of different harbour locations were tried, but no obviously dominant route developed before the railway age.
Proposals to make the Tay into a navigable waterway date to 1824, when local Perth entrepreneur William Morris started to lobby for this. When the construction of the Rideau Canal started in 1826, Perth business interests hoped that this would include the Tay, but the Superintending Engineer for the Rideau Canal, Lt. Colonel John By had no mandate to build any branch canals. So it was decided to form a company to build the Tay Canal. On 16 March 1831, legislation to form the Tay Navigation Company was passed.
The Firth of Tay is outstanding for its extensive sand and mudflats, its population of common seals and for its wintering birds such as oystercatcher, bar-tailed godwit, shelduck and velvet scoter. There is good access to much of the shoreline and many good wildlife watching opportunities.
It is part of the waterway between the firth of and bay of . The waterway continues northwards through to Stockholm.
The strait is shallow and narrow and can only be traversed by small vessels with up to 3 metre draft. Traffic through the strait is heavy in summertime.
"The Famous Tay Whale" is a poem by William Topaz McGonagall about the Tay Whale, also known as the Monster, a humpback whale hunted and killed in 1883 in the Firth of Tay near Dundee, Scotland, then the country's main whaling port. The doggerel verse is famous for lacking poetic quality.
Fife, bounded to the north by the Firth of Tay and to the south by the Firth of Forth, is a natural peninsula whose political boundaries have changed little over the ages. The Pictish king list and De Situ Albanie documents of the Poppleton manuscript mention the division of the Pictish realm into seven sub-kingdoms or provinces, one being Fife, though this is now regarded as a medieval invention. The earliest known reference to the common epithet "The Kingdom of Fife" dates from only 1678, in a proposition that the term derives from the quasi-regal privileges of the Earl of Fife. The notion of a kingdom may derive from a misinterpretation of an extract from Wyntoun. The name is recorded as "Fib" in A.D. 1150 and "Fif" in 1165. It was often associated with Fothriff.
Tay Head () is a rocky headland 6 nautical miles (11 km) east of Mount Alexander, extending into the Firth of Tay on the south coast of Joinville Island. The name, given by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1963, is derived from the Firth of Tay.
The Firth of Tay in Antarctica was discovered in 1892-93 by Captain Thomas Robertson of the Dundee whaling expedition and named by him after the one in Scotland. He also named nearby Dundee Island in honour of the main city on the firth.
Two bridges span the firth, the Tay Road Bridge and the Tay Rail Bridge.
In the 19th century the Tay Rail Bridge was built across the firth at Dundee as part of the East Coast Main Line, which linked Aberdeen in the north with Edinburgh and London to the south. The bridge, designed by Sir Thomas Bouch, officially opened in May 1878. On 28December 1879 the bridge collapsed as a train passed over. The entire train fell into the firth, with the loss of 75 passengers and train crew. The event was commemorated in a poem, The Tay Bridge Disaster (1880), written by William McGonagall, a notoriously unskilled Scottish poet. The critical response to his article was enhanced as he had previously written two poems celebrating the strength and certain immortality of the Tay Bridge. A second much more well received poem was published in the same year by the German writer Theodor Fontane.[18] A. J. Cronin's first novel, Hatter's Castle (1931), includes a scene involving the Tay Bridge Disaster, and the 1942 filmed version of the book recreates the bridge's catastrophic collapse. The rail bridge was rebuilt, with the replacement bridge opening on 11 June 1887.
The islands of the north coast are remote from the main centres of population, although for the most part lie close to the shores of the mainland. There is a small group of larger islands near Tongue Bay but the largest on this coast is Stroma in the Pentland Firth, which lies between Caithness and Orkney. Innis Mhòr in the Dornoch Firth is the largest of a handful of small islets off the coast of Easter Ross. Further south are Inchcape off the coast of Angus, and Mugdrum, the only substantial island in the Firth of Tay. There is a cluster of islands in the Solway Firth that marks the south western border of Scotland, including the Islands of Fleet, in Wigtown Bay.
Waterways in the United Kingdom is a link page for any waterway, river, canal, firth or estuary in the United Kingdom.See Rivers of the United Kingdom for a list of the rivers of the United Kingdom, organised geographically.
Fife is a peninsula in eastern Scotland bordered on the north by the Firth of Tay, on the east by the North Sea and by the Firth of Forth to the south. The route to the west is partially blocked by the mass of the Ochil Hills. Almost all road traffic into and out of Fife has to pass over one of four bridges, south on the Forth Road Bridge (public transport and cyclists only) and Queensferry Crossing, west on the Kincardine Bridge or north-east via the Tay Road Bridge, the exception being traffic headed north on the M90. Tolls were abolished on the Tay Road Bridge and Forth Road Bridge on 11 February 2008.