Geography of Scotland example at Aberdeen. Much of the Scottish coastline consists of a machair formation, a dune pasture land formed as sea levels subsided. The east coast has several significant estuaries and other nature reserves including the Ythan Estuary and Fowlsheugh, both of which have been designated as Important Bird Areas. Firths of Scotland include the Solway Firth, Firth of Clyde, and Firth of Lorne on the west coast, and the Cromarty Firth, Moray Firth, Firth of Tay, and Firth of Forth on the east coast. The Pentland Firth is not an inlet, but the strait that separates the Orkney Isles from
Firth of Lorn Mull, with widths of from to , inclusive of the islands on the east side, such as Kerrera and the Slate Islands. The west side is an ample deep-water channel leading ultimately inland to the Caledonian Canal. Although the English word firth, the Gaelic equivalent linne (as in Linne Foirthe, Firth of Forth), and all the major firth names, have been in use since proto-historic times in Scotland, the combination “Firth of Lorn” was not innovated until the late 19th century. Lorn is presumed in modern Gaelic dictionaries to be a syncope of its Gaelic form Latharna, as is the