Lakes of Glarus 2026: 21, from the Walensee up to 2475 m

From the Walensee to high mountains, in a small canton. How high do they go? ↓

More than 2000 metres separate the lowest and highest lakes of Glarus, in a canton you can cross in a day. At the bottom the Walensee, at the top the Obersee at 2475 m.

Number of lakes in Glarus: 21

21 lakes of half a hectare or more, and yet the national map shows 305 bodies of standing water in Glarus. The gap is not imprecision; it is a way of counting.

Anyone reading a different figure has almost always drawn a different line: count every water surface and Glarus has 305; count only lakes over one square kilometre and you get 3. Even a plain name such as "Weiher" counts as official: what decides is the entry in the swissNAMES3D gazetteer. Our count states where the line is, so it can be checked.

Lake Finder: find any lake in Glarus

Largest lake in Glarus: Klöntalersee

The largest lake touching Glarus is the Walensee (24.1 km²), but only 19% of its surface lies in the canton. The largest lake belonging entirely to the canton is the Klöntalersee: 3.14 km² at 844 m.

Highest lake in Glarus: Obersee

7 of the 21 lakes lie above 2,000 m; the highest is the Obersee in Glarus Süd at 2475 m. The canton's median lake sits at 1515 m.

The canton's lowest-lying lake is the Torfstichsee in Glarus Nord at 411 m. Elevation is the water level in the landscape model; for reservoirs it varies with how full they are. 4 of the 21 lakes in the canton have a dam or embankment (structures in swissTLM3D): Klöntalersee, Limmerensee, Muttsee and Stausee Garichti.

Shared lakes: which lakes Glarus shares

Glarus shares 1 of its 21 lakes with other cantons, but it makes up only 44% of its lake surface: most of the water in the canton belongs to it alone.

List of lakes in Glarus

19 of the 21 lakes in Glarus together cover less area than a single lake, Klöntalersee: 2.82 km² against 3.14 km². An official name does not make a lake: 7 of the 28 named bodies of water in Glarus measure less than half a hectare. The list shows all of them by area, the 21 lakes first, the smaller ones marked.

Lakes by size: 14 of 21 under 5 ha

14 of the 21 lakes in Glarus are smaller than five hectares. 7 are larger than ten hectares, which puts Glarus at rank 10 of the 26 cantons.

Measured by area, the small lakes almost vanish: the 14 of the 21 lakes of half a hectare or more that stay under five hectares together cover about 3% of the lake surface in Glarus.

Lakes by municipality: Glarus Süd has the most

The municipality with the most lakes is not on the canton's largest lake (Walensee): Glarus Süd, with 12 lakes, all above 1400 m. Counted are lakes lying entirely within the canton and in no more than two municipalities; a large lake belongs to many. The Lake Finder can search by municipality.

• Glarus Süd12Limmerensee · Muttsee · Oberblegisee · Stausee Garichti · Obersee · Milchspüelersee · Hüenderbüelsee · Chüebodensee · Chammseeli · Ängiseeli · Guppenseeli · Fessis-Seeli
• Glarus Nord7Obersee · Haslenseeli · Talalpsee · Spaneggsee · Ober Fabriggwijer · Torfstichsee · Unter Fabriggwijer
• Glarus1Klöntalersee

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Written by

Marco Gisler

ConvivaPlus Editor · Data & Switzerland

Writes about Switzerland in figures – official data recalculated, counting method explained.

• Population
• 26 cantons
• Waterways
• Official data

Researched & sourced · for Switzerland

Profile & all articles →·Our editorial teamUpdated 25.10.2026

Source: swisstopo (swissTLM3D, swissNAMES3D, swissBOUNDARIES3D, 2026 edition), analysis by ConvivaPlus. Switzerland as a whole: 891 lakes out of 17'873 water surfaces; parts with the same name no more than 50 m apart count as one lake. Area = water surface at the shoreline of the landscape model; reference works using a different shoreline or water level sometimes give other values.