Grey Mare's Tail Waterfall
Waterfall Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
About Grey Mare's Tail Waterfall
The water drops 60m from Loch Skeen — making this one of Britain's five highest waterfalls — down the gorge of Tail Burn into the Moffat Water Valley. The narrow plume of white water earns its name from an obvious likeness to a horse's tail. The landscape was shaped by glacial erosion: a hanging valley sits above the falls, and past the top of the cascade you can continue up to Loch Skeen itself, backed by the 821m summit of White Coomb. A National Trust for Scotland nature reserve covers the whole area and is home to feral goats picking across the steep slopes, peregrine falcons, and ring ouzels. The lime-rich upland soil supports rare flora, including the oblong woodsia, one of Britain's rarest ferns, which has been reintroduced here as part of a species recovery programme. Sir Walter Scott was sufficiently taken with the falls to write a poem about them. From the A708 car park, a ten-minute walk gets you to a solid viewpoint; going all the way to the loch takes around two hours.
Location & details
- Category
- Waterfall
- Region
- Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Coordinates
- 55.42158, -3.29314
Nearby hidden gems
Looking for more? Explore all waterfalls in Dumfries and Galloway.
Added by Alex on PinIt.