River
Lee
90 km from source to mouth · Ireland.
IrelandFlows into Celtic Sea9th longest in Ireland
In numbers
Length
90km
Average flow
45m³/s
Basin
1,254km²
Drop
90m
from 96 m to 6 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
90 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 96 m
- 14 kmMacroom3,765 people
- 25 kmCarrigadrohid Lake5.2 km²
- 50 kmBallincollig18,621 people
- 56 kmDaly's bridge
- 56 kmCeltic Seaat 6 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Ireland
At the mouth it carries 45 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 56 seconds. It drops from 96 m to 6 m, 1.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,254 km², about the size of MQ. 76,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to January; lowest: July. Its dams hold back little of its water (3.5% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- BallincolligLargest city on its banks · 18,621 people
- Cork International Airport (ORK)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 8 km from the cityCar hire at ORK airport (Cork)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water5 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to AugustThe best months to visit
Lee, month by month
Highest water: from December to January
Lowest water: July. Best months to visit: from June to August.
From about 18 m³/s in the lowest month to 81 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Lee: the basin in numbers
1,201 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 76,000people live in the basin
- 64/km²people per km²
- 167maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,205mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.6°Caverage air temperature
- 0.6%covered by lakes
- 0.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 34% Cropland
- 61% Pasture
- 3% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Lee: what you find on the way
- 13Weirs
- 5Boat ramps
- 2River beaches2018 Drought Shoreline end, Stone Beach
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Lee in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
25mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Carrigadrohid Lakekm 255.2km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (25)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Mullaghanish6.4 km away · prominence 264 m694m
- Paps of Anu14 km away670m
- Musheramore14 km away · prominence 439 m644m
- Claragh Mountain13 km away
- Caherbarnagh12 km away
- Kilbarry Hill7.6 km away
- Knockaunnagorp13 km away
- Gortnalour10 km away
17 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Lee in pictures
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Ireland368 km200 m³/s88 km awayMunster BlackwaterIreland168 km89 m³/s45 km awaySuirIreland184 km88 m³/s109 km awayBarrowIreland192 km110 m³/s111 km awayRiver NoreIreland140 km51 m³/s121 km awayRiver SlaneyIreland117 km40 m³/s146 km awayLiffeyIreland125 km14 m³/s224 km awayRiver BoyneIreland112 km46 m³/s254 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q917851) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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