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Water of Fail

A stream near Tarbolton, South Ayrshire. No gauge of its own: what the river map and the banked data say about it.

Water of Fail is a stream on Ordnance Survey’s river map near Tarbolton, South Ayrshire, with about 6.7 km of mapped channel. On the map it flows into the River Ayr and out to the sea.

Next gauge downstream

Mainholm on the River Ayr, about 19 km along the river below where Water of Fail ends on the map.

0.84 m Normal · easing 17 min ago

No gauge measures Water of Fail itself. A gauge downstream shows water that has already passed it, mixed with everything else that has joined on the way, so it says nothing exact about this stream.

Storm overflows on Water of Fail

2 storm overflows are placed on this stream on the river map. Each status is the water company’s own monitor.

Tarbolton SPS CSO Ns429277 Not discharging
Scottish Water · into Tributary Of Water Of Fail · 2025: 1 overflow event, 0.3 h
Tarbolton SPS EO Ns429277 Not discharging
Scottish Water · into Tributary Of Water Of Fail · 2025: 1 overflow event, 0.2 h

A status says whether an overflow is discharging now, never how much or why. A monitor that is offline or has not reported is not “not discharging”. Sewage in Britain’s rivers →

Live status: © Scottish Water, near-real-time Overflow Map data, open licence for reuse. EDM monitors indicate overflows; they do not confirm them, and this is not advice on water quality. Annual spill figures: Environment Agency Event Duration Monitoring return, © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right, Open Government Licence (OGL) v3.0.

Places along it

From its source towards its mouth, the settlements within a kilometre of it on the map: Hallrig Heights, Tarbolton, Failford.

Place names: OS Open Names. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

On the map

The map needs JavaScript. Everything it shows is listed on this page.

The blue line is Water of Fail; grey lines are other mapped watercourses. Lines from OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04).

The River Ayr, the river it joins →All rivers with gauges →

What this page can and cannot tell you

Its line, its name and where it flows come from Ordnance Survey’s river map (OS Open Rivers, edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small streams, ditches and culverts. “Flows into” is the map’s word: a channel that is not on the map is not shown here, which does not mean it is not there.
No gauge measures Water of Fail itself, so its own level is not known here.
Storm overflows are listed only where the river map places them on this stream; an overflow it could not place is not counted.
No water-sampling point with a banked sample is placed on this stream. Only England’s samples are banked, and only where the map can place their sampling point.
Nothing on this page says whether any place floods. For an address, see its postcode page.