Dangers of Eryri's iconic waterfalls as visitors clamour for beauty spot selfies

When she visited, for the BBC’s recent Pilgrimage series, model and TV personality Christine McGuinness was blown away by the 120ft waterfall, describing it as the "most magical beautiful thing I have ever seen”. Aber Falls (Rhaeadr Fawr) is undeniably stunning but with beauty can come dangers.

For a while, the odds at the waterfall were stacked against female walkers, a series of them needing rescue. Then mountain rescuers noticed a spate of middle-aged hikers falling and getting injured. Over the years, however, the iconic Eryri waterfall has been indiscriminate with its victims.

In mountain rescue logbooks, its name keeps cropping up. Volunteers are kept busy attending incidents, from a 10-year-old falling from trees nearby to a man, 70, tumbling nearly 23ft next to the waterfall. Last month a dog plunged down a deep ravine but was recovered unharmed.

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Most accidents there involve slips on the path or on rocks nearby. In 2010 the body of a 45-year-old local man was found in a plunge pool but tragedies like this at Aber Falls are few and far between.

Waterfall safety has been thrown into the spotlight following two incidents in Eryri (Snowdonia) in the past fortnight. On April 14, a walker was airlifted to hospital with “severe” multiple injuries after falling at a waterfall near Dolgellau. And on April 3, a man died after falling into a waterfall in Cwm Llafar, a remote valley in the Carneddau mountains near Bethesda. His brother raised the alarm after pulling him from the water.

Waterfalls are inherently dangerous and most people are naturally cautious around them. Compared with the challenge of climbing Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), one of the world’s busiest mountains, waterfall visits are relatively safe: on average, eight fatalities are recorded on Wales’ highest peak each year, some as a result of medical conditions, others from falls.

As Eryri’s popularity has grown, concerns have been expressed about the ability of the national park and its rescue services to cope with surging visitor numbers. In 2023, Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team exceeded 300 call-outs, more than three times the number in 2008.

It prompted a warning from its chairman that the team’s 56 volunteers were in danger of “overload” and “burnout”. North Wales Live has a WhatsApp community group enabling you to get the latest stories delivered straight to your phone

The trend was partly blamed on social media, with beauty spot selfies tempting more people to visit riskier sites. Angela Jones, partnership manager at Eryri National Park, told the BBC that certain locations were at “over-capacity”, particularly around the region’s impressive waterfalls. Footpaths were being eroded and water quality diminished.

Urging social media influencers to be careful about what they share online, Ms Jones said eye-catching photos of Yr Wyddfa’s waterfalls or pools can paint a misleading picture. Locations along the Watkin Path, for example, can be “extremely challenging”.

She added: “I’ve spoken to people myself who have driven all the way from London just to have a photograph taken in the Watkin pools.” Get all the latest Gwynedd news by signing up to our newsletter - sent every Tuesday

Until this month, the last major waterfall-related incident in Eryri was in June 2015 when two Gwynedd men died at Ceunant Mawr, one of the most dangerous in the national park. Otherwise known as Llanberis Falls, this waterfall plunges more than 100ft into a narrow gorge. It attracts thousands of visitors each year, most of them admiring it from the safety of the Snowdon Mountain Railway viaduct.

The two men got after getting into difficulty while swimming at the base of the waterfall. As the gorge rarely receives sunlight, its waters contain pockets of extremely cold water and numerous safety signs warn of the dangers. Another two swimmers were taken to hospital following the same incident.

In June 2021, history almost repeated itself when a man got into difficulty while swimming at Ceunant Mawr. He was rescued and sent to hospital but Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team said that, without a swift multi-agency response, the “outcome could have been very different”.

Undercurrents in the plunge pool have also caught out kayakers going over the two-stage waterfall – these can drag people under. Perhaps the most notorious survivor was a six-year-old girl who, four years ago, fell into a pool above Ceunant Mawr before being washed over the top and plunging 100ft.

At the time, Llanberis Mountain Rescue said: “Having been alerted by the commotion, a local Good Samaritan saw the child floating in the pool below the falls, entered the water and was able to recover them to the side, where other members of the public assisted them out.”

Knowing the place well, team members were amazed she’d survived and was relatively unhurt. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox

An equally dramatic waterfall incident – also labelled a “miracle” – occurred from an even greater height in May 2018. A three-year-old boy and his aunt escaped serious injury when falling at Pistyll Rhaeadr. Wales’ highest waterfall, in Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant, Powys, also has a habit of catching out the unwary.

The child, from Liverpool, fell some 140ft into the plunge pool below. A tree branch broke his aunt’s fall. They’d been trying to climb a scree slope next to the waterfall and had reached a ledge about two-thirds of the way up.

Witnesses described hearing screams and seeing the aunt trying to grab the boy as he fell. Remarkably, he missed rocks alongside the waterfall and plunged straight into the pool below, from where he was helped to safety. He suffered just a small scratch on his cheek.

Afterwards, the owner of the nearby Pistyll Rhaeadr Restaurant and Tearooms told the BBC: “As we got the young lad through the crowds, there was a silence and people were holding their arms out trying to touch this lad. It was quite beautiful and strange.”

The message from rescue teams is that all trips need to be carefully planned and provisioned, irrespective of whether the destination is a mountain peak or picture-postcard waterfall. Chris Lloyd, of Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation, said there will always be risks in the mountains.

“Anyone venturing into the great outdoors always needs to take care no matter where they go,” he said. “There is more water around at the moment and places are slippy, so people are advised to stick to footpaths.”

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