Category:Firths, sea-lochs and estuaries of the British Isles

Estuaries and inlets around the British Isles bear a variety of names:

• Firth is the commonest name along the east coast of Scotland, and is used too of the Firth of Clyde and Solway Firth; the word is from the Norse fjörðr ("fjord" in modern Danish and Norwegian). It perhaps the most unambiguous name for what it describes.
• Loch is the word of the Gaelic west coast of Scotland and Ireland, though in Scotland it is now adopted for waters far outside the areas which ever spoke Gaelic. Those opening from the sea are sea-lochs.
• Lough is used of the waters of Ireland; the word is spelled loch in Irish Gaelic but in English as Lough.
• Creek is a tidal river inlet, perhaps dramatic but usually too small to note separately from its river.
• Estuary is not a native word but a geographer's description which is used as the name for the estuaries of several rivers.
• Harbour is common in southern Britain and describes well the natural harbours of those coasts.

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