5 Waterfalls in South West England

Another type of place people love to visit - when they are allowed, that is - is a good old waterfall with plenty of good negative ions or whatever it is that emanates from falling water and makes us feel good.

Here’s a basic list of five of the best in the West Country…

Spekes Mill Mouth Canyon and Fall, Smuggler’s Coast, North Devon

The stream that runs down the steep valley from Speke’s Mill, just south of St Catherine’s Tor on North Devon’s Atlantic coast, makes its bid for freedom and the sea in a death-defying waterfall.

In doing so it forms one of the most dramatic cataracts in the region, creating a secret canyon. Maybe not a Grand Canyon. There are places where you couldn’t swing a cat in it, let alone go bungee-jumping, fly a helicopter, or whatever else it is they do in the world’s famous big defiles... 

But it is a remarkable place nevertheless - a wild rock and river zone that cannot be fully appreciated until you are right down there in the middle of it. But be warned, best take a rope and a head for heights.

By the way, I discovered this place with my friends Kester and Liz Webb. Kester passed away a couple of years ago and looking at the photos has inspired me to put up an entire post about the “Secret Canyon” as we called it soon.

White Lady Falls, Lydford Gorge 

She is elegant and beautiful. Once you’ve been to see her, you will not easily forget her vertiginous grace. Her skirts hiss in the breeze but, when you get close to them, a chill creeps into your bones as if some ghostly zephyr has just whispered your name.

Photo of our old dog Monty when he was young by my friend Richard Austin

She is the White Lady – Queen of West Country waterfalls. There are taller cataracts tumbling over the peninsula’s sea-cliffs, but none plummet with quite the Lydford lady’s tumbling aplomb and fearsome force.

The West Dartmoor waterfall once featured in a National Trust listing of the top ten most romantic settings in the region because, if her sylvan good looks don’t take your breath away, then the rest of Lydford Gorge certainly will.

Golitha Falls, Southern Bodmin Moor

There’s a point high on Bodmin Moor where the Fowey makes a big turn to the south west - from here the river goes in for some meandering and, for the first time in its career, cloaks itself with woods.

We have now arrived at Golitha Falls - part of a local Country Park, run by Caradon District Council which has laid out a pleasant mile-long circular walk that follows the Fowey down to the celebrated torrent, and back again along a higher route.

All around there are traces of the busy-ness of yesteryear. Even in boulder strewn woods, leats accompany the river and close to the falls you'll see the remains of an enormous mill. But the main attraction is the dramatic way in which the river descends through the trees. No one single enormous cataract here, but a dramatic series of plunging, tumbling and rushing falls. 

Sherrycombe Falls, Exmoor

This is as close as you can get from the land side of Sherrycombe Falls without a rope

You’ll need a boat for this one. On terra firm only skilled climbers can get safely anywhere near to Sherrycombe Falls which drop 100s of feet from Exmoor’s mighty Holdstone Down. 

But plenty of pleasure boats do ply the coast from Ilfracombe and the area is worth a visit not only for the spectacle of the tall thin waterfall but because legend has it that German U-boats used to replenish their water supplies in this most secret of places during the Second World War.

Sandy Hole Pass, Dartmoor

In the empty hills east of popular Postbridge there’s one of the Westcountry’s most dramatic but loneliest waterfalls. You’ll find it where the Dart tumbles through a place called Sandy Hole Pass. 

A great dam of bedrock seems to hold back the river - and what the watercourse does is to gush across great slabs of granite before squeezing down rocky gutters, which are so narrow they look as if they’ve been carved. As the river tumbles down over these rocks, it enters a dramatic swirling cauldron set in stone. 

Again, there are taller waterfalls in the region, but this place is truly spectacular partly because it is so wild and largely unvisited.