Lodore Falls

Lodore Falls is a waterfall in Borrowdale, Cumbria, fed by Watendlath Tarn. The beck drops over a steep cascade into the valley, often more than thirty metres high. After heavy rain it becomes a powerful torrent, but in dry spells it may shrink to a thin thread. The falls appear in the Welsh lullaby ‘Dinogad’s Smock’ as Rhaeadr Derwennydd, dating from the 7th to 11th centuries. William Sawrey Gilpin sketched them in 1772, calling the stream the ‘Lodoar River’. Robert Southey’s 1820 poem ‘Cataract of Lodore’ fixed the modern spelling. A public house opened before 1792 and grew into the Lodore Hotel by 1870. Visitors reach the falls along a roadside path or inside the Lodore Falls Hotel grounds. The oak woodlands beside the cascade are protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. From the viewing points the full height of the drop is clear, with water crashing between sheer rock walls.