The tallest waterfalls in Wales

Which bit is supposed to be measured?

For details of routes to these waterfalls, see the waterfall walks page.

This is not an official list (though it is substantially better than any other lists I have encountered). I do not expect this list to be complete, since I may have missed important waterfalls in Mid and North Wales. Add to that the fact that most waterfalls have no information available at all, and it becomes quite hard to produce this list. In many cases, careful reading of high scale maps is the only option. If you can offer any details, please get in touch.

Tallest single drop

This lists waterfalls with a single drop of 20 metres or more, and gives the heights of the drops that are tall enough.

To qualify for the list of single drops, a waterfall must fall continuously from top to bottom. While it is allowed to make contact with the bedrock, in cases such as a horsetail fall, cascade, or a nearly-vertical plunge, it must not have any sections that are that are gentle enough to be classed as a stream, river or plunge pool separating parts of that fall into separate distinct falls. It is not always easy obtaining this information for waterfalls, as people sometimes only give total height (or in some cases, nothing at all), in an attempt to make the waterfall seem as tall as possible. This is definitely the case for Pistyll Rhaeadr, for example, for which the only reliable information is the total height, when the waterfall is in three very distinct sections.

Waterfall single drops of 20 metres or more

Waterfall	Height (metres)	Comments	Image
Devil's Appendix	93	May be broken by low flow or high winds.
Pistyll y Llyn	91
Maesglase Waterfall Middle Fall	85
Afon Hengwm	75
Pistyll Gwyn, Afon Pumryd	72
Diffwys Dwr/Craig y Rhaeadr	61
Nant y Cafn Falls Lower Cascade	45
Rhaeadr Y Carreg Wen	45	Calculated. Sometimes misquoted as 21 metres.
Pistyll Rhaeadr	40	Estimated. Often mistakenly claimed to be the tallest in Wales.
Nant y Cafn Falls Upper Cascade	40
Ffrwd Fawr	40
Ffrwd Ferin/Rhaeadr Myherin	40	Calculated. Height often grossly exaggerated.
Nant Bwa-drain	39	Branch only appears in higher flow.
Aber Falls	37	Sometimes mistakenly quoted as 79 metres.
Nant Cwm-du Falls	36
Maesglase Waterfall Lower Fall	34
Rhaeadr y Bedd outflow cascade	34	Water artificially diverted to the head of this natural cascade.
Ffred Ferin Isaf/Rhaeadr Myherin Isaf	30	Estimated.
Pistyll Blaen-y-cwm	30
Ffrwd Milwyn	28
Sgwd Henrhyd	27
Sgwd Einion Gam	26
Nant y Gwaith Lower Fall	26
Melincourt Falls	25
Mynach Falls	25	Estimated.
Pistyll Gwyn, Afon Las	25	Estimated.
Nant y Cafn Falls Spout	24
Rhaeadr y Bedd original cascade	22
Nant Bwa-drain	22	Normal and high flow.
Cwm Rhaeadr Waterfall	22
Pen Pych/Berw Wion	21
Rhaeadr Dyserth	21
Pistyll Cain	20	Sometimes quoted as 46 metres in total, by including remote cascades.
Devil's Kitchen	20	Estimated.
Rhaeadr y Cwm	20	Estimated. Height is often exaggerated to as much as 37 metres.
Nant y Gwaith Upper Fall	20
Nant y Gwaith Middle Fall	20
Ceunant Mawr/Llanberis Falls	20	Height artificially reduced to 18 metres by damming the plunge pool.

Tallest total height

This lists waterfalls with a total height of 40 metres or more (chosen because there are too many waterfalls requiring etimates below that height), and gives their heights.

To qualify for the list of total heights, the sections of the waterfall must fall without significant sections of stream or river between drops. Plunge pools and intermediate cascades are allowed. It can be difficult to decide where to draw the line. Small streams that tumble down mountain scarps in a series of repeated, broken cascades are intentionally discounted, not because they do not deserve recognition, but because there are simply too many of them to discover, and it is too difficult to obtain accurate information for them. If you are looking for these, the tallest I know are the streams in Cwm Idwal, with a few being about 200 metres tall, and one to the southeast of the Devil's Kitchen having 300 metres of height dropped in a series of cascades. There are also some small streams that drop very steeply for over 600 metres down the southwest slopes of Glyder Fawr. Examples in Mid Wales would include Rhaeadr Du and Rhaeadr Wen at Tarren Bwlch Gwyn near Aberhosan, both about 250 metres high, but never breaking into proper waterfalls.

Waterfall total heights of 40 metres or more

Waterfall	Height (metres)	Comments	Image
Maesglase Waterfall	160	Continues for another 60 metres as a cascading stream.
Pistyll y Llyn	160
Pistyll Gwyn, Afon Pumryd	152
Nant y Cafn Falls	130
Afon Hengwm	110
Pistyll Blaen-y-cwm	107
Aber Falls	100	Sometimes quoted as 91 metres due to conversion errors.
Pistyll Rhyd-y-meinciau/Rhiwargor Falls/	100
Nant y Gwaith Falls	100
Devil's Appendix	93
Mynach Falls	90
Rhaeadr Bach upper section	90	Estimated.
Rhaeadr y Cwm	80	Calculated.
Nant Gwynllyn Falls	80
Cwm Rhaeadr Waterfall	80
Llaethnant main section	76
Pistyll Rhaeadr	73	Often mistakenly claimed to be the tallest in Wales.
Ffrwd Ferin/Rhaeadr Myherin	70	Height often grossly exaggerated.
Rhaeadr Y Carreg Wen upper section	70
Dol-goch Tributary Waterfalls	65
Diffwys Dwr/Craig y Rhaeadr	61
Rhaeadr Porth-llwyd	61
Nant Cwm-du Falls	60
Arthog Waterfalls	60
Mossy Seat Falls	60
Rhaeadr Y Carreg Wen lower section	60
Cwm Cerrig-duon	60	Unconfirmed
Nant Bwa-drain	52	Calculated.
Rhuddnant Gorge Falls	50
Rhaeadr Bach lower section	50	Estimated.
Dulas Gorge Falls	50
Nant Ddeiliog Falls	50	Unconfirmed
Rhaeadr Rhosan	45
Nant y Cae Falls	45
Ffrwd Fawr	40
Rhaeadr Ogwen	40	Estimated.
Nant y Sarn Falls	40	Estimated.
Ffrwd Milwyn	40
Llaethnant upper section	40

It may be interesting to note that Berw Nant yr Ychen is probably the tallest waterfall in South Wales in terms of total height, at nearly 30 metres. Sgwd Henrhyd, on the other hand, has only a single drop, and is only a few metres shorter.

• Back to Waterfalls
• Back to holidays
• Back to homepage
• Copyright and reproduction