Glenmacnass Waterfall

The Glenmacnass River runs across high blanket bog and then drops abruptly over the lip of the plateau into the valley below, falling roughly eighty metres in a series of slides and cascades down bare granite. The road passes right at the top, so the car park is at the head of the fall rather than the foot, and the immediate view is down the length of it and out along the valley towards Laragh. A rough path leads part of the way down the side but the rock is smooth, sloping and greasy when wet, and people have died here after slipping - there are warning signs and they are not decorative. The waterfall is entirely rain-fed and after a dry fortnight in summer it can be reduced to a trickle down a dark rock face. From the same car park a track climbs onto Tonelagee, the third highest of the Wicklow tops.

What you actually see

• The drop - about eighty metres of cascades over bare granite.
• The plateau edge - bog above, valley below, with the road at the lip.
• The valley view - down Glenmacnass towards Laragh.
• The Tonelagee track - the climb onto the tops from the same car park.

When to go

Any season, and best a day or two after heavy rain. Summer dry spells reduce it substantially. The car park is small and fills on fine weekends.

Honest expectations

The rock beside the fall is smooth and lethally slippery when wet; fatal falls have happened here. There is no barrier along most of it. In dry weather the flow can be disappointing.

Nearby

Glendalough and Laragh are south; the Sally Gap is north on the same road.