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The Lake District has more waterfalls per square mile than almost any other area of England. This is a direct consequence of the geology — the hard, resistant volcanic rock of the central fells produces steep valley sides down which the rainfall, and the Lake District receives a great deal of rainfall, runs fast and falls far. In the period after heavy rain, when every gill is running at full volume, the hills around Borrowdale or the Langdale valley come alive with the sound of falling water.
This is not a guide to walking to remote falls. It is a guide to the finest waterfalls that are accessible to visitors without serious hill walking — and to what makes each one distinctive.
Aira Force is the most visited waterfall in the Lake District and remains one of the finest. The falls drop approximately 20 metres into a pool in a wooded gorge on the western shore of Ullswater, reached by a short, easy path from the National Trust car park. The surrounding woodland — ancient oak and ash, with spectacular autumn colour — frames the falls in the way that the Victorian designers who laid out the paths intended.
Aira Force was on the tourist circuit by the early 19th century. Wordsworth and Dorothy visited; William wrote about the falls in several poems. The red squirrel population in the surrounding woodland makes the walk more interesting in the early morning, before the main visitor numbers arrive.
The Lodore Falls, behind the Lodore Falls Hotel at the southern end of Derwentwater, are the falls that Robert Southey celebrated in his onomatopoeic poem The Cataract of Lodore (1820) — a poem structured around the sounds of falling water, building from a trickle to a cataract in the sound of its own words. The falls are most impressive after heavy rain; in dry weather they can disappoint. After three days of November rain, they are exactly what Southey was describing.
The falls are accessible through the hotel grounds (a small charge applies) or by public footpath on the eastern bank.
Stock Ghyll Force is in the wooded gill above Ambleside town centre — a ten-minute uphill walk from the market place. The falls drop in two main sections into a series of pools in a narrow wooded gorge. They are smaller than Aira Force but more enclosed and more dramatic in their setting; the combination of the narrow gorge, the overhanging trees and the scale of the falls relative to the space creates an intensity that the larger, more open falls lack.
Stock Ghyll has been a popular destination since the Victorian period; the path and viewing platforms date from this era.
At the head of Great Langdale, the Dungeon Ghyll Force drops into a deep, narrow slot in the rock — a geological feature rather than an aesthetic one, where the force of the water over millennia has cut vertically into the volcanic rock rather than spreading as it falls. The approach from the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel is short but involves some scrambling on rocky ground; the enclosed slot, when you reach it, is unlike anything else in the Lake District.
Not in the Lake District but in the Yorkshire Dales — and included here because it is one of the finest accessible falls in the north of England and almost entirely unknown to visitors who stick to the main Dales attractions. Scaleber Force, above the village of Settle, drops 15 metres over a ledge of limestone into a pool in a wooded ravine. The setting — limestone pavement and ancient woodland on the approach, the falls themselves in a deep, sheltered gorge — is exceptional.
All Lake District waterfalls improve after rain. The difference between Aira Force in a dry August and Aira Force after two days of October rain is the difference between a beautiful waterfall and a serious one. For the best waterfall experience, plan your visit for the day after heavy rain and go first thing in the morning before the volume drops.
Aira Force at Ullswater is visible from the The 10 Lakes Full-day Tour with Ullswater Cruise. The Borrowdale waterfalls are covered on the 8 Lakes Morning Tour.