Tidal Curiosities – The Whirlpool of Corryvreckan

Judith Wolf, 1 Sep 2016.

Most people know that the tide rises and falls periodically at the coast but not everyone is as aware of the periodic flood and ebb of tidal currents. These are of particular importance for mariners and need to be taken into account for navigation. Where currents become particularly strong, they can become known as a ‘tidal race’, which can be unnavigable at certain states of the tide.

Around the coast of the British Isles are many locations where a tidal race forms, usually in a constricted channel between two islands or an island and the mainland. In Scotland, between the islands of Jura and Scarba is the famous ‘Whirlpool of Corryvreckan’ – possibly the third largest whirlpool in the world (after Saltstraumen and Moskstraumen, off the coast of Norway). The Gulf of Corryvreckan, also called the Strait of Corryvreckan, is a narrow strait between the islands of Jura and Scarba, in Argyll and Bute, off the west coast of mainland Scotland.

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