Gordale Scar


Gordale Scar is a limestone ravine northeast of Malham, North Yorkshire, England. It contains two waterfalls and has overhanging limestone cliffs over high. The gorge could have been formed by water from melting glaciers or a cavern collapse. The stream flowing through the scar is Gordale Beck, which on leaving the gorge flows over Janet's Foss before joining Malham Beck downstream to form the River Aire. A right of way leads up the gorge, but requires climbing approximately of tufa at the lower waterfall.

Notable visitors

wrote in the sonnet Gordale, "let thy feet repair to Gordale chasm, terrific as the lair where the young lions couch".
James Ward created a large and imaginative painting of it that can be seen in Tate Britain.
J. M. W. Turner also painted a picture of it in 1816, also to be seen in Tate Britain.
The waterfall was used for an exterior scene in Jim Henson's Dark Crystal

Image gallery