Talk:List of waterfalls in the United Kingdom

Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is part of the UK. This page seems to neglect it. It should either be renamed Waterfalls of Great Britain, or have NI added.--King Hildebrand 16:01, 30 April 2006 (UTC) Geopersona (talk) 17:57, 7 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I have added Northern Ireland with a couple of entries - must be plenty more falls in the six counties - anyone who knows them care to add them?

Pistyll Rhaeadr
I thought that Pistyll Rhaeadr is the highest waterfall in Wales AND England? Why is Caultey Spout higher on the list. It's also very unlikely that Pisyll y Llyn is the same height as Pistyll Rhaeadr - I live near Pistyll y Llyn. User:Owain18 —Preceding undated comment was added at 14:16, 17 November 2008 (UTC).

Pistyll Rhaeadr is definitely not the highest waterfall in Wales and England. Cautley Spout is also not the tallest single waterfall in England. Gaping Gill has a 105 metre waterfall into its entrance, and is a well known tourist spot for that reason. Depending on flow, it can be completely unbroken. Only the top is visible from the surface, but just because you can't see it easily doesn't mean it's not there.TarquinWJ (talk) 15:02, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

These definitions are a nightmare, aren't they? For example, there seems to be a clash of definitions regarding the heights of Pistyll Rhaeadr and Cautley Spout. Their recognised heights are:


 * Pistyll Rhaeadr: three steps 73 m, tallest individual stage 40 m. (Not an 80 m single drop, as claimed by the nearby cafe and its website!)


 * Cautley Spout: total cascade 198 m, tallest individual stage 76 m.

Yet this page compares that individual stage of Cautley Spout with the total height of Pistyll Rhaeadr. Which should we use?

Ministry (talk) 13:59, 3 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Cautley Spout is a cascade waterfall. Along with many other such claims, there is no genuine long drop.  Gaping Gill is a genuine long drop, but entirely underground.  We just can't make proper comparisons when there are so many different types of falls.  Some are little more than steep streams.    D b f i r s   16:21, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

This is the problem with lists....
How can Pistyll y Llyn be the fourth highest/tallest/longest when the drop is not vertical? It is a series falls or more accurately a series of very steep cascades.

I think having a list like this shows the lack of authority/expert on the subject. It's too narrow in one respect, single drop height, and too crude in another because it excludes "tall" waterfalls because they do not match the exact narrow nature of the search criteria.

The solution is therefore three-fold:
 * 1) Do nothing after having a long-winded-round-the -houses-discussion-page-debate akin to Monty Python's Life of Brian scene "it's the Gourd" "No the shoe".
 * 2) Remove the list all together.
 * 3) An editor who actually has expert knowledge replaces the list with a table sorted by type.

Pistyll Rhaeadr, which is is not on the list because it is a series of falls, was once a single-drop waterfall. It is only now that we are observing a tiered falls as the result of hundreds of thousand years of water erosion. I just think it is too difficult and self defeating to narrow the table to one category.

An analogy would be to compare sportspersons by only measuring one small narrow range, for instance using just one of the following: scored in one season; scored in single game; scored consecutively; or scored all time

Doesn't seem fair does it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.130.134.157 (talk) 16:32, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

New waterfall pages
I've added country lists with notes for each of England, Scotland and Wales - see links at foot of article. I was originally going to add these to this page but I think it would have made the page over-long. Geopersona (talk) 18:52, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Gadlys Falls vs Pwll y Gerwyn
See the Talk:Waterfalls of Wales page for details of why this waterfall was renamed in the list. TarquinWJ (talk) 22:03, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Cornwall section
81.103.65.165 added 'Golitha Falls' under a new section headed 'Cornwall'. I have reassigned this fall under the heading of England. The article has not hitherto been broken down into counties but simply into the four nations which form the constituent parts of the United Kingdom ie in alphabetical order; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales. It doesn't seem a useful way forwards to have a separate section for Cornwall without doing the same for all the other counties/administrative areas which collectively form the UK. In any case each of the four constituent nations is better served by their own dedicated waterfalls lists which currently exist. There may be a case for initiating a new article titled 'Waterfalls of Cornwall' of course. cheers Geopersona (talk) 20:43, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

The Waterfall
What's "The Waterfall"? There's no link and it's too vague to search for elsewhere. Is it a joke? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dandart (talk • contribs) 14:53, 8 July 2016 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:List of waterfalls of Canada which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 18:07, 15 August 2022 (UTC)