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River

River Wear

96 km from source to mouth · United Kingdom.

United KingdomUnited KingdomFlows into North Sea

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

96km

Average flow

21m³/s

Basin

1,175km²

Drop

255m

from 257 m to 2 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

96 km of river and 68 stops on the way: 9 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

257 m2 m
Wearheadat 257 m0 km
Wolsingham Bridge21 km
Wolsingham2,503 people21 km
Witton Bridge33 km
Bishop Auckland26,050 people41 km
River Gaunlesstributary46 km
Kingsgate Bridge62 km
Durham47,785 people62 km
Chester-le-Street36,917 people75 km
Washington67,085 people82 km
North Seaat 2 m96 km
02040608096 km
  1. 0 kmWearheadat 257 m
  2. 0 kmWearhead Bridge
  3. 0 kmBritton Bridge and ford
  4. 0 kmDaddry Shield Bridge
  5. 0 kmHuntshield Ford
  6. 0 kmPonderlane Bridge
  7. 0 kmBridge End Footbridge
  8. 0 kmCoronation Bridge
  9. 0 kmHaswick's Bridge
  10. 0 kmWest Blackdene Bridge
  11. 0 kmWaterside House Footbridge
  12. 0 kmBroken Way Footbridge
  13. 0 kmBlackdene Mine Bridge
  14. 0 kmSparks Farm Bridge
  15. 2 kmBrotherlee Footbridge
  16. 4 kmEastgate Conveyor Bridge
  17. 6 kmHag Bridge
  18. 9 kmStanhope Bridge
  19. 10 kmStanhope1,602 people
  20. 10 kmStanhope Footbridge
  21. 10 kmStanhope Ford
  22. 15 kmFrosterley Bridge
  23. 16 kmKenneth Bridge
  24. 16 kmBroadwood Rail Bridge
  25. 16 kmBroadwood Bridge
  26. 21 kmWolsingham Bridge
  27. 21 kmWolsingham2,503 people
  28. 22 kmWolsingham Rail Bridge
  29. 33 kmWitton Bridge
  30. 36 kmWitton Park Viaduct
  31. 41 kmBishop Auckland26,050 people
  32. 41 kmNewton Cap Bridge
  33. 41 kmNewton Cap Railway Viaduct
  34. 45 kmHunwick1,248 people
  35. 45 kmPay Bridge
  36. 46 kmRiver Gaunlesstributary
  37. 46 kmWillington6,633 people
  38. 47 kmJubilee Bridge
  39. 50 kmPage Bank Bridge
  40. 55 kmCroxdale Viaduct
  41. 55 kmSunderland Bridge
  42. 55 kmCroxdale Road Bridge
  43. 60 kmShincliffe Bridge
  44. 61 kmMaiden Castle bridge
  45. 62 kmKingsgate Bridge
  46. 62 kmPrebends Bridge
  47. 62 kmBaths Bridge
  48. 62 kmDurham47,785 people
  49. 62 kmElvet Bridge
  50. 62 kmFramwellgate Bridge
  51. 62 kmMilburngate Bridge
  52. 62 kmNew Elvet Bridge
  53. 62 kmPenny Ferry Bridge
  54. 66 kmBelmont Viaduct
  55. 69 kmFinchale Bridge
  56. 70 kmCocken Bridge
  57. 75 kmChester-le-Street36,917 people
  58. 76 kmChester New Bridge
  59. 80 kmChartershaugh Bridge
  60. 81 kmPenshaw Bridge
  61. 82 kmVictoria Viaduct
  62. 82 kmWashington67,085 people
  63. 83 kmCox Green footbridge
  64. 86 kmHylton Viaduct
  65. 90 kmNorthern Spire Bridge
  66. 91 kmQueen Alexandra Bridge
  67. 93 kmMonkwearmouth Bridge
  68. 93 kmWearmouth Bridge
  69. 94 kmSunderland277,417 people
  70. 96 kmNorth Seaat 2 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in North East England

At the mouth it carries 21 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 118 seconds. It drops from 257 m to 2 m, 2.7 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,175 km², about the size of MQ. 520,000 people live in it. Highest water: from November to January. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

River Wear, month by month

Highest water: from November to January

Best months to visit: from June to September.

31
3°55 mmJan
23
3°44 mmFeb
19
5°47 mmMar
15
7°45 mmApr
13
10°51 mmMay
10
13°48 mmJun
10.0
15°52 mmJul
17
15°69 mmAug
20
13°60 mmSep
21
10°55 mmOct
30
6°65 mmNov
32
4°57 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 10.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 32 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

Car hire at NCL airport (Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear)Discover CarsSee 

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 Wear: the basin in numbers

1,175 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Free-flowingDams upstream can hold only 0.0% of a year's flow: the river still keeps its natural rhythm.
  • 520,000people live in the basin
  • 444/km²people per km²
  • 224maverage altitude of the basin
  • 805mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 7.8°Caverage air temperature
  • 31%protected areas
  • 0.1%covered by lakes

What covers the basin

  • 1% Forest
  • 24% Cropland
  • 33% Pasture
  • 23% 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 Wear: what you find on the way

  • 2Dams
  • 13Weirs
  • 2Locks
  • 3WaterfallsTurn Wheel Fall
  • 10Boat ramps
  • 1MarinasSunderland Marina
  • 2Boat rentalsWeardale Watersports, Brown's Rowing Boats

From OpenStreetMap, within 1.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

River Wear 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.

  • 6mountains at the sourcePeakyas
  • 1island off the mouthIslandyas

Mountains at the source (6)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Burnhope Seat13 km away · prominence 190 m747m
  2. Three Pikes8.4 km away650m
  3. Pawlaw Pike12 km away
  4. Collier Law11 km away
  5. Fendrith Hill6.4 km away
  6. Skaylock Hill14 km away

Open Peakyas ↗

Islands off the mouth (1)

Within 30 km of the mouth, by Islandyas

  1. St Mary's Island17 km away

Islandyas is coming soonOpen Islandyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

River Wear: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
River Wear: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth10 km across

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 Wear in pictures

Durham castle
Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
Durham City 35c 20030907 River Wear 01 upstream
PeterGHughes · CC BY 2.5
River Wear 20070701 Cocken Bridge 01
PeterGHughes · CC BY 2.5
River Wear Baths Bridge 20070630
PeterGHughes at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

Tributaries (2)

Also: River Gaunless, River Browney

Nearby

Rivers nearby

River TyneUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom100 km63 m³/s11 km awayRiver TeesUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom137 km34 m³/s38 km awayRiver TweedUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom156 km89 m³/s102 km awayRiver TrentUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom298 km95 m³/s146 km awayRiver AireUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom114 km36 m³/s136 km awayRiver OuseUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom90 km50 m³/s142 km awayRiver TayUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom193 km170 m³/s203 km awayRiver ClydeUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom176 km90 m³/s225 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q1433715) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesPeakyas, 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.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit