The tallest wall of rock standing over salt water is not on this list, and neither is the second. Mitre Peak rises 1,683 m straight out of Milford Sound and Greenland's Thumbnail throws up a 1,350 m face above Torsukattak, but both are fjord walls — glacial trenches reaching inland, not coastline. Ball's Pyramid is a sea stack. The Na Pali Coast's famous 1,200 m is a ridge crest rather than one continuous drop. What is left is measured one way only: the height of the cliff top above sea level, where the face meets open ocean at a mean angle of 45 degrees or steeper. That runs from 1,027 m down to 534 m across twelve countries. These are landforms rather than structures, so nothing here has fallen or been built over; the only thing that moves is the measurement. And tallest is not the same as sheerest, which is why the most vertical drop of the fifteen sits at number seven.
15 Tallest Sea Cliffs in the World (2026)
The record The tallest sea cliff in the world is Risco de Faneque, in Spain — 1,027 m (3,369 ft), sea cliff height. Source: Spanish Wikipedia; Gran Canaria official tourism board. Verified .
Tallest Sea Cliffs in the World The Ranking at a Glance
Fun Facts About the World’s Tallest Sea Cliffs
- Tallest is not the same as sheerest — Cape Enniberg drops its 754 m in one vertical sweep, so it takes the title of highest vertical sea cliff even though six cliffs on this list stand higher.
- The biggest wall of rock above water is not a sea cliff at all — Mitre Peak rises 1,683 m straight out of Milford Sound, but a fjord is a glacial trench reaching inland rather than open coast, so it sits outside this ranking.
- Guinness gave up on the record — the Molokai Sea Cliffs held the title of world’s highest sea cliffs from the 1970s, but the category was retired in the 1990s, because where a cliff starts and stops resists one clean definition.
- Whether Europe has the highest sea cliff depends on a continent argument — Risco de Faneque is in the Canary Islands, which sit on the African plate; count them as African and the European title passes to Hornelen.
- A mountain can be too tall to count — Qingshui Mountain rises 2,408 m from the Pacific, but the ground between its summit and the water is nowhere near a cliff, so Qingshui Cliff ranks on its 800 m coastal wall instead.
- Iceland’s cliff country is the last refuge of its only native land mammal — Hornbjarg stands in Hornstrandir, the one place in Iceland where the Arctic fox is fully protected from hunting.
1. Risco de Faneque
At 1,027 m above the Atlantic, Risco de Faneque is the tallest sea cliff on Earth that stands over genuinely open ocean. It rises on the north-west corner of Gran Canaria inside Tamadaba Natural Park, where the oldest rock on the island — basalt laid down during the first volcanic cycle, some 14 million years ago — has been cut back by the sea into one near-vertical wall.
There is no platform and no railing. The cliff is read either from the water or from the Degollada de Faneque, the saddle walkers reach on a long climb up from the village of Agaete, and the summit is a hike rather than a lookout. Far below sits Faneroque, a black-sand beach reachable only by boat. Spanish sources call it the highest cliff in Europe, a claim that rests entirely on counting the Canary Islands as European rather than African.
2. Molokai Sea Cliffs
At 1,010 m, the sea cliffs along the north coast of east Molokai held the Guinness World Record for the tallest on Earth from the 1970s until the category was retired in the 1990s, and they remain comfortably the tallest in the United States. The record figure was taken near Umilehi Point, where the wall descends to the Pacific at an average angle of inclination of more than 55 degrees.
These are the remnant of the East Molokai volcano, a large part of which slid into the sea in a prehistoric collapse; what survives is the amphitheatre-headed valley wall the surf has been trimming ever since. In wet months, waterfalls drop most of the height in a single thread. No road or trail reaches the highest section, so the view belongs to boats, helicopters, and the small peninsula of Kalaupapa below — a National Historical Park that carries its own long and difficult human history.
3. Ra's Sajir
At 900 m above the Arabian Sea, Ra's Sajir is the tallest sea cliff in Asia and the least-visited entry here. It stands in the far west of Oman's Dhofar governorate near the town of Shaat, roughly 95 km from Salalah, at the point where the Jabal al Qamar range runs out of land and stops dead above the water.
What makes this coast strange is the khareef, the summer monsoon that pushes moist air off the Indian Ocean and drapes the cliffs in fog and green from about June to September — an improbable sight on the edge of the Arabian Peninsula, where the same slopes are bare rock the rest of the year. Ra's Sajir was a navigational landmark long before it was a measured one, marking the turn for traders working between the Red Sea, the Gulf and India.
4. Mount Gower
Mount Gower rises 875 m from the Pacific at the southern end of Lord Howe Island, and apart from a short scree slope at its foot the sea cliff climbs almost vertically for more than 800 m of that — the tallest in Australia. The island is the worn-down remnant of a shield volcano roughly seven million years old, sitting alone in the Tasman Sea some 600 km off the New South Wales coast.
The summit carries a patch of cloud forest kept permanently damp by mist snagging on the peak, and it is a stronghold of the Lord Howe woodhen, a flightless bird found nowhere else. Reaching it is a full-day return walk rated among the hardest in Australia, with fixed ropes on the steep sections, and walkers must go with a licensed guide. Mount Lidgbird stands immediately to the north, slightly lower and with no route to its top.
5. Hornelen
At 860 m, Hornelen is the highest sea cliff in Europe — the standard claim, and one that holds so long as the Canary Islands are counted as African. It stands at the eastern end of Bremangerlandet in Vestland, dropping to the Frøysjøen, a strait open to the Norwegian Sea at both ends rather than an inland fjord arm, which is why it belongs on this list where Preikestolen does not.
The mountain is Devonian sandstone and has been a landmark on Norway's coastal shipping route for centuries. Marked paths reach the summit from Hunskår and Berleneset, easy walking that turns to scrambling over blocks near the top, and the summit opens out over a scatter of islands and grey water. A via ferrata takes a harder line, and the great face above the strait itself is left to climbers.
6. Qingshui Cliff
Qingshui Cliff averages 800 m above the Pacific along roughly 21 km of Taiwan's east coast — the highest coastal cliff in the country and one of the few places on Earth where a mountain range meets the ocean this abruptly. The rock is marble and gneiss, the same metamorphic sequence that Taroko Gorge cuts through a little inland.
The scale is a product of collision: the Philippine Sea Plate driving into Eurasia lifts the island faster than the sea can wear its edge back into a gentle profile. Qingshui Mountain itself tops out at 2,408 m, but that summit sits well back from the water and the ground between is nothing like a cliff face, which is why the ranking figure here is the 800 m coastal wall rather than the peak. The Suhua Highway runs the length of it, ducking in and out of tunnels, with a viewing platform at Chongde.
7. Cape Enniberg
Cape Enniberg reaches 754 m at the northern tip of Viðoy, and while six cliffs here are taller, none is steeper: it is widely described as the highest vertical sea cliff in the world, dropping to the North Atlantic in one clean sweep rather than at an angle. That distinction is why it turns up in record books that Faneque and Molokai do not.
The cape is layered basalt, the flood-lava stack that makes up the whole archipelago, and it holds enormous seabird colonies — fulmars, guillemots and puffins packed into the ledges. Reaching the top means a guided walk along an exposed ridge from Viðareiði, the northernmost village in the Faroes, where the edge is unfenced and the weather turns fast. From below, boats run in along the base through the summer.
8. Croaghaun
Croaghaun falls 688 m to the Atlantic at the western end of Achill Island — the highest sea cliffs in Ireland and, by the usual European reckoning, the third highest after Hornelen and Cape Enniberg. The mountain is quartzite, its northern side scooped into corrie lakes left behind by the last glaciation.
There is no road, no car park and no visitor centre at the top, which is much of the appeal. The cliff is reached on foot from Keem Bay, a climb of a couple of hours, with nothing fencing the edge when you get there. The reward is a wall that most visitors to Ireland never see, and a view across to the abandoned village on the slopes of Slievemore. Achill is joined to the mainland by a bridge, so the walk is easier to reach than the remoteness suggests.
9. Hvanndalabjarg
Hvanndalabjarg stands 630 m above the Atlantic between Ólafsfjörður and the Hvanndalir valleys, the highest sea cliff in Iceland. A fissure known as Flagið runs some 600 m down the face from the top edge, and a river spills off the rim straight into the sea — a waterfall that seamen working this stretch of the north coast have long used as a bearing.
The cliff is basalt, cut through by gullies and gorges, and it is genuinely awkward to reach: no road runs to Hvanndalir, so the approach is either a long hike over the ridge from Ólafsfjörður or a boat in settled weather. Most people who see Hvanndalabjarg see it from the water, which is also the only vantage that gives the whole face at once.
10. Cliffs of Vixía Herbeira
The Cliffs of Vixía Herbeira rise 621 m above the Atlantic on the Serra da Capelada in Galicia, between Cariño and Cedeira. They are usually described as the highest sea cliffs in continental Europe — a narrower claim than Hornelen's, which counts islands, and one that holds up on the mainland.
The name comes from the old watch post on the ridge, and the drop is less a single vertical wall than an immense tilted face sliding to the water at a steady, alarming angle. Wild horses graze the moorland above it. A road climbs most of the way to the Garita de Herbeira lookout, which makes this the easiest cliff on the list to stand on top of, and the whole sweep of the Capelada opens up from there. The Cape Ortegal lighthouse is a short drive north.
11. Slieve League
Slieve League drops 601 m to the Atlantic in south-west Donegal, the second-highest sea cliffs in Ireland after Croaghaun and among the highest in Europe. Unlike Croaghaun it is set up for visitors, with a car park, a seasonal shuttle and a viewing area at Bunglas that puts the full height in front of you without a climb.
The rock is a jumble of quartzite and schist stained ochre and red by mineral seams, which is why the face reads as bands of colour rather than plain grey. Beyond the viewpoint, the One Man's Pass ridge runs along the top toward the summit, narrow enough to be genuinely exposed in wind. Early Christian hermits built a settlement up here, and the remains of a chapel and beehive huts still sit near the top.
12. Chapman's Peak
Chapman's Peak reaches 593 m on the western side of the Cape Peninsula, its flank falling sharply for hundreds of metres into the Atlantic between Hout Bay and Noordhoek. It sits just four metres above Monte Solaro here — close enough that a re-survey could swap them — so the tiebreak falls to the steeper mean face angle, which Chapman's western flank has.
The mountain is a slab of Table Mountain sandstone resting on older Cape Granite, and the junction between the two runs as a visible line along the cliff. Chapman's Peak Drive is cut along that contact, about nine kilometres of road with the rock overhanging the tarmac in places, and it ranks among the most spectacular coastal drives anywhere. The summit itself is reached by a steep path climbing from the pass.
13. Monte Solaro
Monte Solaro is the highest point on Capri at 589 m, its western side falling away to the Tyrrhenian in sheer dolomitic slopes that split the island in two. It sits four metres below Chapman's Peak, close enough that the pair are effectively co-ranked, with the tiebreak going to the steeper face.
A chairlift runs up from Anacapri in about twelve minutes, dangling riders over terraced gardens on the way, and a lookout at the top lets you stand out over the drop. On a clear day the view takes in the whole of Capri, the Bay of Naples, the Amalfi Coast and, far off, the mountains of Calabria. The walk up takes an hour or so for anyone who would rather earn it.
14. Cabo Girão
Cabo Girão rises 580 m above the Atlantic on Madeira's south coast at Câmara de Lobos, with the escarpment measured variously between 560 m and 589 m depending on where the reading is taken. It is by some distance the most-visited cliff on this list, because of what has been built on the lip of it.
The Skywalk is a glass-floored platform cantilevered out over the edge — the highest cliff skywalk in Europe — and it delivers the drop straight down through the soles of your shoes. At the base, reachable by cable car, are the fajãs: small shelves of farmland built up from material that fell off the cliff, still worked for vines and vegetables. The name is said to come from the point where Zarco turned his ship back during the island's early exploration.
15. Hornbjarg
Hornbjarg reaches 534 m at Kálfatindur, its highest point, on the northern edge of the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve — the second Icelandic cliff on this list and the one at the very end of the country. Jörundur, the neighbouring peak on the same headland, stands at 429 m.
This is a basalt bird cliff on a huge scale, holding one of the North Atlantic's densest seabird colonies through the breeding season: guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars crammed onto the ledges from late spring into August. Hornstrandir has no roads and no permanent residents, so access is by boat from Ísafjörður and everything after that is walking. It is also the one place in Iceland where the Arctic fox is fully protected, which is why they are so strikingly unbothered by people here.
FAQ: The World's Tallest Sea Cliffs
What is the tallest sea cliff in the world?
Risco de Faneque on Gran Canaria, at 1,027 m above the Atlantic, is the tallest cliff standing over open ocean. The better-known answer is the Molokai Sea Cliffs in Hawaii at 1,010 m, which held the Guinness record until the category was retired in the 1990s. Taller walls exist, but they rise from fjords rather than open coast.
Why are Mitre Peak and Milford Sound not on this list?
Because a fjord is not a coastline. Mitre Peak rises 1,683 m out of Milford Sound and Greenland's Thumbnail throws up a 1,350 m face, but both stand over glacial trenches that reach far inland. This ranking counts only faces meeting open ocean, which also rules out Preikestolen above Lysefjorden and sea stacks such as Ball's Pyramid.
What is the difference between the tallest and the steepest sea cliff?
Height and angle are separate measurements. Cape Enniberg in the Faroe Islands is only seventh here at 754 m, but it falls in one vertical sweep, which earns it the title of highest vertical sea cliff in the world. The taller cliffs above it descend at an angle, in Molokai's case an average of just over 55 degrees.
Where are the tallest sea cliffs in the United States?
Along the north coast of east Molokai in Hawaii, where the wall reaches 1,010 m near Umilehi Point. They are the eroded remnant of the East Molokai volcano, much of which collapsed into the sea in prehistory. No road or trail reaches the highest section, so most people see it from a boat or a helicopter.
Can you actually visit the world's tallest sea cliffs?
Some are easy and some are not. A road climbs almost to the top of the Cliffs of Vixía Herbeira in Galicia, and Cabo Girão on Madeira has a glass skywalk over the drop. Others demand real effort: Croaghaun and Risco de Faneque are hikes, Mount Gower needs a licensed guide, and Hvanndalabjarg is usually seen from a boat.
Planning more of your trip? Keep exploring more world record-breakers.