Leith (Edinburgh), Scotland tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 05:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are Europe/London local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Sun 17 May (range 5.0m / 16.2ft). Last neap on Sat 16 May. Next neap on Fri 22 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Leith is the working port of Edinburgh on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, opening east through the firth to the open North Sea past the Bass Rock and the Isle of May. The historical Leith Docks complex now mixes the Royal Yacht Britannia berth, the cruise terminal, and a working cargo and ferry trade with the redeveloped waterfront at the Shore. The tide here runs a moderate semidiurnal signal: cleanly two highs and two lows of comparable size each day, twelve and a half hours apart. Mean range at Leith is about 3.6 metres, climbing past 4.6 on spring tides and dropping near 2.0 on neaps — substantially larger than the Thames Estuary or the southern North Sea coast and on the same scale as the eastern English coast. The Firth of Forth itself behaves as a tide amplifier as the open North Sea forcing propagates west through Berwick and Dunbar into the narrowing inner firth past the bridges and on to the upper firth at Alloa and Kincardine. High water at Stirling at the head of the firth lags Leith by about an hour. The Firth of Forth Bridge crossing — the Forth Bridge railway, the Forth Road Bridge, and the Queensferry Crossing — sits at the narrowest point of the firth, where currents on the change of tide concentrate sharply. Beach walkers reading Portobello and Cramond for the wide-sand windows, sea kayakers crossing to Inchcolm Island, anglers working the Granton breakwater, and the working cargo pilots leaving Leith Docks each read the table for different windows. UK Hydrographic Office Admiralty TotalTide is the authoritative British tide product; Open-Meteo Marine drives the gridded predictions on this page. North Sea storm surge in winter can lift levels 50 cm or more above predicted.