Lake · United Kingdom
Loch Tay
Loch Tay - Loch Tatha
Lake in Perth and Kinross, and Stirling, Scotland, UK, outflows east to River Tay
- Area
- 24.1km²
- Max depth
- 150m
- Average depth
- 31m
- Elevation
- 106m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 53km
- Volume
- 0.747km³
Loch Tay is a lake in United Kingdom. It covers 24.1 km². On average it is 31 m deep, and 150 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 106 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Loch Tay?
The water is warmest in August, around 16 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 4 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 16 °C on average in July and 3 °C in January. The driest month is April (87 mm of rain), the wettest October (155 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (52 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 154 | 22 | 0.3 | 22 |
| February | 4 | 5 | 3 | -1 | 116 | 19 | 1.7 | 21 |
| March | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 106 | 21 | 3.0 | 20 |
| April | 6 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 87 | 19 | 5.0 | 18 |
| May | 9 | 11 | 12 | 4 | 107 | 18 | 5.9 | 17 |
| June | 13 | 14 | 14 | 8 | 120 | 20 | 4.6 | 16 |
| July | 16 | 16 | 16 | 9 | 133 | 23 | 4.4 | 15 |
| August | 16 | 16 | 15 | 9 | 151 | 23 | 3.8 | 16 |
| September | 13 | 15 | 13 | 7 | 118 | 20 | 3.1 | 18 |
| October | 10 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 155 | 22 | 1.9 | 19 |
| November | 7 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 146 | 22 | 0.8 | 20 |
| December | 5 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 144 | 21 | 0.3 | 20 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 10 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 594 km² of land.
- About 27 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 3.0 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Loch Tay
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 6campsites
Wild camp site, High Creagan Caravan Park, Maragowan Caravan Site, Loch Tay Highland Lodges, Cruachan Farm Caravan and Camping Park and 1 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 7marinas and slipways
Slip Way, Taymouth Marina and 5 more
- —ferry piers
- 3viewpoints
Falls of Acharn Viewpoint, Black Rock Viewpoint
- 29hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Coach House Hotel, Ardeonaig Hotel, Killin Hotel, The Old Smiddy, Falls of Dochart Inn and 24 more
- —fishing spots
- 10restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Dundee Airport (DND), 68 km in a straight line.
Car hire at GLA airport (Glasgow)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | 3.0 | 3.2 | 5.0 | 8.3 | 11.6 | 14.3 | 15.8 | 15.2 | 12.9 | 9.3 | 5.9 | 3.7 |
| 2020 | +2.0 | +0.3 | ±0.0 | +0.9 | +0.9 | +1.3 | −1.8 | +1.0 | ±0.0 | −0.5 | +1.4 | −0.1 |
| 2021 | −2.2 | −1.0 | +1.4 | −1.1 | −1.6 | +1.5 | +3.1 | +1.8 | +2.3 | +1.0 | +1.0 | −0.3 |
| 2022 | +1.9 | +1.2 | +2.3 | +0.9 | +0.3 | +0.5 | +1.0 | +1.5 | +1.0 | +1.4 | +1.9 | −1.4 |
| 2023 | +0.6 | +2.7 | −0.2 | +0.4 | +1.8 | +3.8 | −0.2 | +0.6 | +2.0 | +0.1 | −0.7 | +0.2 |
| 2024 | ±0.0 | +1.6 | +1.0 | +0.1 | +3.6 | −0.7 | −0.3 | −0.4 | +0.3 | +0.8 | +0.4 | +2.0 |
| 2025 | −0.2 | +0.7 | +2.7 | +2.7 | +3.0 | +0.8 | +1.8 | +2.0 | −0.1 | +0.6 | +0.1 | +1.5 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United Kingdom18.7 km² · 20 km away15°maxLoch LomondUnited Kingdom68.5 km² · 61 km away18°maxLoch TummelUnited Kingdom5.4 km² · 21 km away17°maxLoch ErichtUnited Kingdom21.9 km² · 33 km away13°maxLoch KatrineUnited Kingdom12.6 km² · 39 km away17°maxLoch LevenUnited Kingdom13.3 km² · 59 km away18°maxAbout these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q1363409) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
