Malham Cove
Interesting facts
- When water poured over the lip on 6 December 2015, the 80-metre drop briefly counted as England's highest single-drop waterfall above ground.
- The cliff is made of Great Scar Limestone, laid down in warm tropical seas in the early Carboniferous, more than 330 million years ago.
- The cove formed along the line of the Middle Craven Fault and has been worn back from it by water and ice.
- Over the last million and a half years Malham was probably buried under ice sheets at least three times, each of which plucked rock from the cliff face.
- The stream from Malham Tarn vanishes underground at a spot called Water Sinks and only resurfaces at Aire Head, south of the village.
- Climbers have been tackling the cove since the 1950s, and Steve McClure also put up Overshadow, graded 9a+, among the hardest routes in Britain.
- Because the wall faces south, it is a favourite winter crag, while in summer the rock can become uncomfortably hot.
- The Harry Potter scenes at the cove were filmed in November 2009.
- Along with nearby Gordale Scar, the cove was chosen for the BBC series Seven Natural Wonders as one of the natural wonders of Yorkshire.
Why it is worth it
A kilometre north of the village of Malham, the green floor of the valley ends abruptly at a curved wall of pale limestone some 80 metres high and more than 300 metres across. Malham Cove is the dry lip of a waterfall: at the close of the last Ice Age, more than 12,000 years ago, meltwater from the retreating glaciers poured over this edge in a vast cataract, and because the water cut hardest at the centre of the lip, the cliff was worn back into its amphitheatre shape. When the cove was described in 1779 by the antiquary Thomas West, he likened it to the weathered wall of an enormous castle.
Today the water travels underground. Malham Beck, rising on Malham Moor, emerges from a cave at the foot of the cliff, while the outflow of Malham Tarn, further north, sinks into the limestone before reaching the cove and reappears only south of the village. Dye tests showed that the two streams cross behind the cliff without mixing – evidence of a cave system that divers have followed for more than a kilometre and that, judging by stalagmites at least 27,000 years old, existed before the last glaciation. Only rarely does the old waterfall return: after the torrential rain of Storm Desmond in December 2015 water spilled over the top, for what is thought to be the first time since 1824.
On the western side about 400 uneven stone steps, part of the Pennine Way, climb to the top, where a broad limestone pavement of grey blocks and deep fissures stretches out above the drop. The south-facing wall is one of England's best-known climbing crags, home to Rainman, the country's first sport route graded 9b, put up by Steve McClure. The pavement appeared in the 1992 film of Wuthering Heights and the cove in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1; together with nearby Gordale Scar it lies within the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Getting there
Malham Cove lies about 1 km north of Malham village in the Yorkshire Dales. The nearest town is Colne, about 24 km away, and the nearest airport is Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA), about 40 km away.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Ribblehead Viaduct 20.8 km · viaduct
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From the encyclopaedia
Malham Cove is a large curved limestone formation 0.6 miles (1 km) north of the village of Malham, North Yorkshire, England. It was formed by a waterfall carrying meltwater from glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age more than 12,000 years ago. Today it is a well-known beauty spot and rock climbing crag within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. A large limestone pavement lies above the cove.
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