Moorings in Firth of Forth

The Firth of Forth is the North Sea inlet between Fife to the north and the Lothians to the south, narrowing westward into the estuary of the River Forth. Three bridges cross it between North and South Queensferry, the Forth Bridge, the Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing, and further up the Kincardine and Clackmannanshire bridges span the estuary. Its islands include Inchkeith, Inchcolm, Cramond Island, Fidra, the Bass Rock and the Isle of May, and the firth is a Site of Special Scientific Interest with more than 90,000 breeding seabirds each year.

Port Edgar Marina, just west of the Forth Road Bridge at South Queensferry, is a busy marina with around 300 berths on the site of a former Royal Navy base. In Edinburgh, Granton Harbour has become a leisure harbour where the Royal Forth and Forth Corinthian yacht clubs jointly run Edinburgh Marina.

Forth Ports runs the commercial ports at Leith, Rosyth, Grangemouth, Burntisland, Kirkcaldy and Methil and has been responsible for pilotage on the firth since 1988, so leisure craft share the water with shipping. Along both coasts, smaller harbours keep local boats: recreational vessels now moor in Anstruther harbour on the Fife coast, and the East Lothian Yacht Club has club moorings at North Berwick.

The firth also connects with Scotland's canals. The Forth and Clyde Canal meets the Forth through the River Carron near Grangemouth, where a new sea lock opened in 2013, and at Falkirk the Falkirk Wheel lifts boats up to the Union Canal, which runs on to Edinburgh Quay. Moorings in the Firth of Forth therefore include marina pontoons, club and harbour moorings and, through the canals, inland berths.