Firth locally the change is held to be at the Tail of the Bank where the river crosses a sandbar off Greenock at the junction to the Gare Loch, or even further west at Gourock point. However, some firths are exceptions. The Cromarty Firth on the east coast of Scotland, for example, resembles a large loch with only a relatively small outlet to the sea and the Solway Firth and the Moray Firth are more like extremely large bays. The Pentland Firth is a strait rather than a bay or an inlet. These are connected to, or form part of, the
Firth of Lorn Scottish refusal to demark the firth as a separate body: the island of Lismore, Scotland (not to be confused with the various Irish Lismores), blocks the entry to Loch Linnhe in such a way as to create a shelter from weather in the Firth of Lorn. In 1816 the commissioners appointed by the British government to complete the Caledonian Canal reported that ships of 300-400 tons were running into Linnhè Loch to shelter from the weather in the firth. The loch was recognized far earlier, but not under that name. Some crown-sponsored sailing directions by a pilot, Alexandre Lindsay, who