Meeting of the Waters

The Avonmore and the Avonbeg meet here to form the Avoca River, in a wooded bend of the valley. What made the spot famous was Thomas Moore, who wrote a song about it in 1807 opening with a line about there being no valley so sweet in the wide world, and the poem carried the place into Irish emigrant memory for a century and a half. A monument and a tree stump said to be where Moore sat mark the site, along with a riverside park, a car park and a pub. The honest problem with the visit is that the confluence itself is quiet and modest - two moderate rivers joining under trees - and it is a literary pilgrimage more than a landscape one. The Avoca valley below carries the legacy of copper mining, and the river has run rust-orange with mine drainage at times; remediation work has been ongoing.

The landscape

• The confluence - the Avonmore and Avonbeg joining under trees.
• The Moore monument - the memorial and the tree stump marking the spot.
• The riverside park - benches, paths and a pub at the car park.
• The literary weight - a place known through a song rather than a view.

When to go

April to October for the leaves and the light. It is a short stop rather than a destination. Coach tours arrive through the middle of the day in summer.

Before you go

Modest - two ordinary rivers meeting, and many visitors find the fame out of proportion to the sight. The valley downstream has a history of mine drainage discolouring the water. Half an hour covers it.

Nearby

Avoca village is south; Glendalough is north-west through Rathdrum.