River
Orne
170 km from source to mouth · France.
FranceFlows into English Channel
In numbers
Length
170km
Average flow
28m³/s
Basin
2,932km²
Drop
139m
from 139 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
170 km of river and 34 stops on the way: 26 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmAunou-sur-Orneat 139 m
- 17 kmChâteau de Médavy
- 34 kmArgentan18,230 people
- 37 kmUretributary
- 46 kmÉcouché1,413 people
- 47 kmCancetributary
- 66 kmPont-Écrepin1,032 people
- 66 kmPutanges-Pont-Écrepin1,029 people
- 91 kmNoireautributary
- 92 kmPont-d'Ouilly1,019 people
- 100 kmViaduc de Clécy
- 101 kmClécy1,286 people
- 107 kmSaint-Rémy1,065 people
- 115 kmThury-Harcourt1,909 people
- 132 kmClinchamps-sur-Orne1,025 people
- 135 kmBully1,175 people
- 138 kmMay-sur-Orne1,795 people
- 139 kmSaint-Martin-de-Fontenay1,962 people
- 140 kmSaint-André-sur-Orne1,679 people
- 143 kmÉterville1,098 people
- 146 kmLouvigny2,222 people
- 146 kmBretteville-sur-Odon4,320 people
- 147 kmFleury-sur-Orne4,457 people
- 151 kmCaen109,400 people
- 151 kmPont Winston-Churchill
- 152 kmPont Capitaine George-Gilbert-Reynolds
- 154 kmMondeville11,582 people
- 154 kmCalix Viaduct
- 159 kmHérouville-Saint-Clair24,258 people
- 159 kmColombelles6,493 people
- 161 kmBlainville-sur-Orne4,598 people
- 164 kmBénouville1,828 people
- 164 kmRanville1,982 people
- 166 kmAmfreville1,198 people
- 169 kmOuistreham9,067 people
- 170 kmEnglish Channelat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in France
At the mouth it carries 28 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 91 seconds. It drops from 139 m to 0 m, 0.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,932 km², about the size of LU. 394,000 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.
Where to start
- CaenLargest city on its banks · 109,400 people
- Caen Carpiquet airport (CFR)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 7 km from the cityCar hire at CFR airport (Caen)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water30 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Orne, month by month
Highest water: from November to January
Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 17 m³/s in the lowest month to 110 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
Orne: the basin in numbers
2,934 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 394,000people live in the basin
- 134/km²people per km²
- 180maverage altitude of the basin
- 744mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.0°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 2% Forest
- 42% Cropland
- 31% 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
Orne: what you find on the way
- 20WeirsBarrage Montalivet, Déversoir du Maresquier and 18 more
- 7LocksBassin Saint-Pierre, Écluse de Ouistreham and 5 more
- 17Boat ramps
- 1Ferry piersFerry Terminal of Ouistreham
- 6MarinasCroisière Fluviale, Port de plaisance de Caen, École de Voile and 3 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Orne 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.
8beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
Beaches (8)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Juno Beach16 km away18.5°C
- Sword Beach8.8 km away18.5°C
- Gold Beach22 km away18.2°C
- Plage de Cabourg6.7 km away18.8°C
- Plage du Temple12 km away18.8°C
- Plage du Casino13 km away18.8°C
- Plage de Deauville24 km away19.0°C
- Plage de Riva Bella2.5 km away18.5°C
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
Orne in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (13)
Also: Odon, Noireau, Rouvre, Cance, Laize, Baize, Ure, Don, Maire, Udon, Thouanne, Baize, Sennevière
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q659526) · 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 | Coastya — 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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Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
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Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
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Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit