We might picture dramatic waterfalls deep in rainforests or far-flung remote mountain jungles, but many of these mesmerising water features can be found much closer to home. They’re often otherworldly places to swim or watch for wildlife – with kingfishers and herons making the occasional appearance if you’re lucky.
From South Wales to Northern Ireland, and plenty of places in between, we’ve explored some of the most spectacular waterfalls in the UK.
Waterfall Country, Powys
“I cannot call to mind a single valley that… comprises so much beautiful and picturesque scenery and so many interesting and special features.” With these words, Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace was describing neither the Amazon nor the Far East that he explored on his intrepid travels, but somewhere much closer to home: the Vale of Neath on the southern slopes of the Brecon Beacons.
Spilling water, mossy riverbeds and tree-shrouded caverns – Waterfall Country is a ramblers dream.
Glenariff Forest Park, County Antrim
The Rivers Glenariff and Inver have cut right through this spectacular steep-sided gorge – the Queen of the Glens. These Northern Irish rivers can be lively and dramatic as they tumble over boulders and a series of three impressive waterfalls. But then they become suddenly calm and tranquil, flowing lazily through oak and beech woodland, sunlight streaming through the fresh new leaves.
This humid and moist microclimate is home to rare ferns, mosses and liverworts, as well as spruce, fir, pine and larch.
Pistyll Rhaeadr, Powys
The Pistyll Rhaeadr falls are born in the Berwyn mountains. The Afon Disgynfa is, at first, not unlike the other streams formed by rain leaking out of the moors.
But the Disgynfa doesn’t survive its sudden plummet over a sheer shelf of volcanic rock, a landform tough enough to have escaped the scouring of the glaciers in the last ice age. Transformed by the falls, the waters continue their journey as the Afon Rhaeadr.
Spray from the cataract nurtures mosses and ferns. Around them, protected from sheep in a walled enclosure, beeches, birches, oaks and pines thrive. From a distance, the wooded gorge and falls resemble an almost Tyrolean scene, which is usually a fecund refuge for squirrels, woodpeckers and finches sheltering from the Berwyns’ icy blasts.
Aber Falls, Gwynedd
Cascading through oak, birch and hazel woodlands below a scree-strewn hillside is Aber Falls. The river boasts one of the steepest gradients from source to sea in England and Wales and the 120ft-high falls are at their most impressive after heavy rains.
The woodland is a good habitat for birds, which are more easily spotted in the winter months when the trees have no leaves. Look out for dippers bobbing on the boulders in the river, while ravens, buzzards and peregrines soar in the skies above.
Pistyll Cain, Gwynedd
In Snowdonia’s rain-soaked forests, everything is clean and wet. Mist rises, trees transpire, moisture kisses your skin and wets your lips. Oxygen-rich air lifts your spirits and the sound of water fills your ears as it trickles down tracks, bubbles through moss, and crashes in creeks.
The Mawddach bashes and caresses the rocks in its bouldery creek. Flashing water, too swift for plants to grow in, scours the rock and shingle bare. As you leave the evergreens for broadleaf woodland it sounds louder, ricocheting round its rocky creek, the whisky-coloured water exploding into jacuzzis of white bubbles.
At Pistyll Cain, the noise is cacophonous. You can see the falls well enough from the footbridge, but if you’re sure-footed you can scramble around the slippery rocks to perch where little plants grow in crevices. White water plummets into the canyon down a stepped cliff, crashing with such force into the dark pool that it creates a permanent uprush of wave and spray, its turbulence shifting the air into cool thrilling winds.
More than 30 species of mammals have been recorded within a five mile radius of Coed y Brenin, including water voles.
High Force, County Durham
You’ll hear the roar of High Force long before you see the falls. The first sighting, from a juniper thicket on the lip of the gorge, is rendered even more impressive by its abruptness.
People often mistakenly name High Force, which is 21.5m (70ft) tall, the highest waterfall in England. But it’s Cautley Spout in the Yorkshire Dales, which boasts a single 76m (249ft) drop, that truly deserves the title. High Force is, however, England’s largest waterfall by volume – something that you can’t fail to notice as you watch the thunderous deluge from your vantage point.
The upper whinstone layers of High Force contrast sharply with the lower, sandstone, shale and limestone. The water erodes these softer rocks more quickly, to the extent that periodically, they can no longer support the harder dolerite, which collapses into the river. The waterfall has so far retreated 700m (2,297ft) into its gorge.
Falls of Clyde, New Lanark
This achingly beautiful wild haven in southern Scotland is famous for its spectacular salmon leap waterfalls and scenic woodland walks along the river. Over 100 bird species have been recorded, including ravens, dippers and kingfishers along with bats, otters and badgers.
Lydford Gorge, Devon
Lydford Gorge is a sylvan delight of laurel, cherry, elm and lime trees. You might catch the blue flash of a kingfisher or a heron lifting elegantly from the water as you encounter the impressive White Lady Waterfall.
This is the deepest gorge in south-west England and includes beautiful ancient oak woodland; the trees’ fresh green leaves newly unfurled. A series of spectacular potholes line the gorge, the largest of which is Devil’s Cauldron. After heavy rain, dramatic whirlpools form in the craterous riverbed.
