River
River Avon
96 km from source to mouth · United Kingdom.
United KingdomFlows into English Channel
In numbers
Length
96km
Average flow
56m³/s
Basin
2,932km²
Drop
93m
from 89 m to -4 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
96 km of river and 15 stops on the way: 9 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 89 m
- 10 kmNetheravon1,321 people
- 17 kmBulford9,519 people
- 20 kmAmesbury10,116 people
- 34 kmRiver Naddertributary
- 37 kmSalisbury45,477 people
- 45 kmAlderbury2,223 people
- 45 kmLongford Castle Bridge
- 46 kmRiver Bournetributary
- 52 kmCounty Bridge
- 52 kmDownton2,731 people
- 62 kmFordingbridge6,066 people
- 71 kmLinbrook Lake0.5 km²
- 75 kmRingwood14,618 people
- 91 kmChristchurch31,372 people
- 92 kmTown Bridge
- 96 kmEnglish Channelat -4 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in the south of England
At the mouth it carries 56 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 45 seconds. It drops from 89 m to -4 m, 1.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,932 km², about the size of LU. 505,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to January; lowest: July. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- SalisburyLargest city on its banks · 45,477 people
- Bournemouth Airport (BOH)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 33 km from the cityCar hire at BOH airport (Bournemouth)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water21 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
River Avon, month by month
Highest water: from December to January
Lowest water: July. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 17 m³/s in the lowest month to 100 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
River Avon: the basin in numbers
2,950 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 505,000people live in the basin
- 171/km²people per km²
- 105maverage altitude of the basin
- 787mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 9.4°Caverage air temperature
- 55%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 1% Forest
- 46% Cropland
- 29% Pasture
- 7% 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
River Avon: what you find on the way
- 75WeirsQueen's Falls, East Mills Weir, Iford Weir and 72 more
- 1LocksBritford Lock
- 13Boat rampsSalisbury Canoe Clun and 12 more
- 7Ferry piersTuckton Tea Gardens, Wick Ferry, Christchurch Quay and 4 more
- 1Marinas
- 4River beachesCow Bridge, Southbourne Beach, White Pits and 1 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
River Avon 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
2beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
9mountains at the sourcePeakyas
6islands off the mouthIslandyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Linbrook Lakekm 560.5km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Beaches (2)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Avon Beachkm 7517.7°C
- Studland Beach16 km away17.5°C
Mountains at the source (9)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Milk Hill8.8 km away · prominence 148 m295m
- Martinsell Hill9.1 km away289m
- Overton Hill12 km away174m
- Tan Hill10 km away
- West Lavington Down14 km away
- Lavington Down13 km away
- Beacon Hill15 km away
- Knap Hill7.8 km away
1 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
Islands off the mouth (6)
Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas
- Brownsea Island16 km away2.0km²
- Furzey Island17 km away
- Green Island18 km away
- Long Island20 km away0.0km²
- Round Island20 km away
- Drove Island18 km away
Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗
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
River Avon in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (3)
Also: River Nadder, River Bourne, River Ebble
Nearby
Rivers nearby
United Kingdom354 km110 m³/s123 km awayRiver ThamesUnited Kingdom334 km66 m³/s166 km awayRiver WyeUnited Kingdom215 km100 m³/s118 km awayRiver ExeUnited Kingdom88 km16 m³/s121 km awaySeine
France777 km500 m³/s211 km awayRiver AvonUnited Kingdom154 km31 m³/s145 km awayRiver LeaUnited Kingdom68 km38 m³/s154 km awayVireFrance128 km13 m³/s161 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q19710) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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, Coastya, Peakyas, Islandyas — 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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