River Tay River Tay The River Tay () 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 (), 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. Its catchment is approximately , the Tweed's is and the Spey's is
Tay Rail Bridge opened nineteen months earlier and having been passed as safe by the Board of Trade, has a long term impact on wider society. According to some commenters, it is still regarded as having been the most notorious bridge disaster to have ever occurred in the British Isles. Within 10 days of the disaster, German poet Theodor Fontane wrote his famous poem . The disaster was commemorated in "The Tay Bridge Disaster", one of the best-known verse efforts of William McGonagall. In the present day, the stumps of the original bridge piers are still visible above the surface of the Tay