Loch Tay is a freshwater loch in the central highlands of Scotland, in the Perth and Kinross and Stirling council areas. It is the sixth-largest loch in Scotland by area and over 490 feet deep at its deepest.

In the Iron Age, some of the Celtic people of the area lived on defensible, artificial islands in the loch, called crannogs (shown above). They are thought to have originated before 2000 BCE, though they continued to be built and used as dwellings and refuges into the Middle Ages. Crannogs (also found elsewhere in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales) not only afforded excellent protection from unruly neighbors but also from the more dangerous wild animals (wolves, bears, boars, and lynxes) that were once common in the British Isles. More than 20 crannogs (most now submerged) have been identified in Loch Tay.

The loch is a popular spot for salmon fishing, and many of its surroundings feature in the traditional Scottish 'Loch Tay Boat Song'. This is a very sad song in which the protagonist muses on unrequited love for a red-haired woman (a Nighean ruadh) whilst rowing at the end of a working day.

The tune was composed by Annie C. MacLeod. The words are by Sir Harold Boulton who also wrote Bonny Strathyre and The Skye Boat Song. Boulton (1859 – June 1, 1935) was born in Charlton then part of Kent, was an English baronet, songwriter and philanthropist, most famously author of the lyrics to the Skye Boat Song. He first became interested in Scottish folk songs as an undergraduate at Oxford.