Stair Falls

These falls themselves would have existed from time immemorial, but they would only have been known as the 'Stair Falls' after the stone steps were made to climb up the cliff beside them. We have no way of knowing when this might have been, but the stairs seem most likely to have been made during the time of friendship between Khazad-dûm and Eregion (the stairs lay on the route between the two places). This would date them from some time in the middle years of the Second Age, probably relatively soon after Eregion's founding in II 750. It is important to note, however, that Khazad-dûm had existed since long before the Elves settled in Eregion, and so the stairs might in principle have dated back much further into history, perhaps even into the First Age.

The stream that flowed over the Stair Falls, the Sirannon, then flowed on along the old ruined road that led toward Eregion during the Second Age. We are not told its ultimate destination, but given the geography of the surrounding region, it almost certainly formed a tributary of the river Glanduin, whose own sources were in the Misty Mountains some thirty miles to the south.