This Top 10 Best Ireland Waterfalls List highlights our personal favorite waterfall experiences in both the Republic of Ireland as well as Northern Ireland (the latter of which is part of the United Kingdom).

I’m only going by all the waterfalls that we’ve visited on the Island of Ireland, and I’m not going into any controversies concerning the political border concerning Northern Ireland.

Anyways, our road trip that covered pretty much all of the island of Ireland was our best effort at having a respectable survey that represents all that this island has to offer.

While Ireland is known for being rainy, that meant that there was no shortage of waterfalls to pursue, and that meant there’s bound to be snubs when we limit this list to just 10 standouts.

The snubs of this list include the Glenevin Waterfall, Glencar Waterfall, Cranny Falls, Gleno Waterfall, and O’Sullivan’s Cascade.

If you want to see our full survey of Irish Waterfalls, check out this page to see what we’ve experienced so far.

So without further ado, here’s our humble sampling of the best waterfalls of Ireland in reverse order…

#10 AASLEAGH FALLS

Connemara Mountains, County Mayo

This short but wide waterfall on the Erriff River was near the stark, knobby mountains of the Connemara National Park not far from the scenic Kylemore Abbey.

Wide, river-type waterfalls like this one seemed to be pretty rare in the island of Ireland in general, which was what made this particular waterfall stand out in my mind.

Furthermore, apparently when we made our visit in mid-July 2024, we must have missed a salmon run because a visitor I encountered here said that there were jumping salmon here the evening before we showed up.

It just goes to show you how remote and naturesque this part of Western Ireland (between Galway and Westport) gets, and thus it just nudged its way into this competitive list of the Top 10 Ireland Waterfalls.

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#9 GLENARIFF WATERFALLS

County Antrim, Northern Ireland (UK)

With this entry, we’re actually talking about multiple waterfalls that can be experienced within the Glenariff Forest Park in the southern part of the scenic Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland.

There are at least two main waterfalls in close proximity to each other (Ess-na-Crub and Ess-na-Larach) as well as a third waterfall closer to the main car park in the reserve’s west side called Hermit’s Falls.

As you can see from this photo of just one of these waterfalls, it’s pretty impressive in its own right, and I haven’t even mentioned other intermediate cascades and waterfalls that are nameless and also can be experienced while pursuing the named waterfalls!

While Northern Ireland’s Antrim Coast is mostly known for coastal scenery (e.g. Giant’s Causeway, Cushendun Caves, etc.), it’s nice to know that further inland, there are lush reserves like this to further add diversity to the Nature that’s on offer here.

So given the accumulation of positive aspects of our time spent in the Glenariff Forest Park, I had to give this series of waterfalls its props by including them collectively on our Top 10 List of Best Ireland Waterfalls.

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#8 ASSARANCA WATERFALL

Ardara, County Donegal

Although you don’t have to do a whole lot of physical exertion to experience this waterfall (as it’s pretty much roadside), it’s still not that easy to get here.

That’s because it involves a fairly lengthy stretch of driving on essentially a single-lane road along an inlet by the Maghera Strand.

But once you get to the car park situated right before this waterfall, that’s when you get to experience the euphoria of being close to a waterfall that’s this tall and impressive.

As if that wasn’t enough, in low tide, it’s also possible to just walk or drive a short distance further to the west to experience both the Maghera Strand and Maghera Caves.

This waterfall also shares the same peninsula that the well-known Slieve League Cliffs are located at, which can be argued is a quieter and more satisfying sea cliffs experience than the well-known Cliffs of Moher.

I often appreciate how some places allow you to do more than just look at a waterfall, and the diversity of other ways to spend time in this part of County Donegal was what really got this waterfall onto this competitive list.

And thus, we had to make room for this waterfall’s appearance on our list of the Top 10 Best Ireland Waterfalls.

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#7 CARRAWAYSTICK WATERFALL

Glenmalure, County Wicklow

This particular waterfall was one of the taller as well as longer cascades that we’ve encountered in all of Ireland, and it sat in a pretty quiet, remote valley of Glenmalure, which was adjacent to the much more visited one in Glendalough..

I found it amazing that for a place with as much heritage and tourists as Glendalough that Glenmalure offered a very different experience with a bit more of tranquility as well as this waterfall to boot!

Now while there had been some bad behavior by visitors that closed off the so-called Zig-zag Trail (which went through private land), you can still experience this waterfall from across the valley after climbing up the so-called Miner’s Way or Miner’s Path.

If you try to experience the waterfall in this manner, there’s a bonus waterfall by the nearest sanctioned car park at Ballyfunshoge, which further adds more to the experience.

Indeed, I appreciate places that reward you for going more off the beaten path, and this waterfall certainly fit that bill, which is why it belongs on our competitive list of Top 10 Best Ireland Waterfalls.

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#6 GLENMACNASS WATERFALL

Laragh, County Wicklow

This could very well be one of the larger waterfalls in Ireland as it was a thick, multi-segmented cascade sloping into a scenic private valley besides the Old Military Road in County Wicklow.

It’s hard to believe that being barely a half-hour drive from the City of Dublin, waterfalls like this one can be concentrated so close to the Irish Republic’s largest city.

In addition to this huge, sloping cascade (which can be experienced along the single-lane road climbing up to the waterfall’s brink, it’s also possible to extend the excursion and do a longer hike up to the heart-shaped lake called Lough Ouler.

So add up all these things going for this waterfall, and we had to nudge it high up towards the middle of our list of the Top 10 Best Ireland Waterfalls.

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#5 GLENINCHAQUIN WATERFALL

Ring of Beara, County Kerry

This waterfall sat within the Ring of Beara, which was a more understated peninsula on Ireland’s southwestern coast compared to the well-visited Ring of Kerry.

So this gave us the excuse we needed to go off the beaten path a little to experience this place.

In fact, we knew we were in for a treat when we saw how huge this waterfall was as we approached the end of the single-lane road and car park area to get a closer look.

We were even able to experience the context and scale of this waterfall (as well as some lake views) from a stone circle called Uragh, which added a bit more mystery to the overall experience.

Even though we had seen that this waterfall had seen better days in the literature, it’s still saying something that even in its diminished mid-July flow that we’re still putting the falls this high up our list of the Top 10 Best Ireland Waterfalls.

So is this treatment justified? I guess you’ll have to explore this spot as we did and judge for yourself!

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#4 TORC WATERFALL

Killarney, County Kerry

This could very well be the most popular waterfall in Ireland as it sat quite close to the touristy city of Killarney right on the doorstep of Killarney National Park in the Ring of Kerry.

Indeed, with a spot this popular, parking could be a bit of a hassle (though I did manage to score a good spot in the late afternoon on a rainy day), but as you can see from the photo above, it’s quite photogenic.

I guess that’s the silver lining when it comes to places like this because with popularity comes expectations, and this waterfall certainly delivered on the expectations part of it.

Short and sweet, which is no wonder why it’s so popular (especially with tourists on limited time), and we had no qualms about including this entry this high up our competitive list of the Top 10 Best Ireland Waterfalls.

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#3 MAHON FALLS

Coomeragh, County Waterford

This tall waterfall sat at the head of a scenic valley within the Coomeragh Mountains accessed by a road that was curiously called the “Magic Road”.

Apparently, the road was “magic” because there was a stretch where it’s possible to let the car roll in neutral and appear to go uphill against gravity (though it’s apparently more of an optical illusion)!

In any case, magic aside, we also got to experience lots of sheep as well as scurrying hares or rabbits the closer we got to the idyllic waterfall.

We even got some bonus side cascades and some views way down south towards the Irish Sea since we sat high enough in the Coomeragh Mountains that we could get such views.

Best of all, our experience was both tranquil and quite uncrowded (we were the only people here on the morning we showed up in mid-July 2024), which was the perfect contrast to its neighbouring towns of Waterford and Kilkenny.

So add it all up and I certainly felt compelled to give this waterfall its props by putting it high up our list of the Top 10 Best Ireland Waterfalls.

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#2 POWERSCOURT WATERFALL

Enniskerry, County Wicklow

This was actually the first waterfall that we encountered in Ireland, and it just so happened to be one of the tallest in the Irish Republic (though some might claim it is THE tallest).

Hard to believe that such a waterfall can exist so close to the Irish capital of Dublin, but it just goes to show you that Nature is close by no matter where you are in the country.

In any case, visiting this waterfall was pretty straightforward as it was a short family-friendly stroll to get right up to the base of this towering giant.

Perhaps the only bummer was that we didn’t get to really fully experience this falls due to some construction going on that prevented us from viewing the falls from across the Dargle River.

So imagine just how much we thought of this waterfall despite not really being able to fully experience it! And that’s why it nearly sat at the top of our list of the Top 10 Best Ireland Waterfalls!

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#1 ASTELLEEN BURN WATERFALL

Glenveagh National Park, County Donegal

While it was tough to pick a waterfall that really stood out in Ireland, I think with this waterfall, it was about the accumulation of the positive subtle properties of this experience that just pushed it to the top of our list of the Top 10 Best Ireland Waterfalls.

For starters, you get nice lakeside scenery just for visiting the Glenveagh National Park, even if the intent of most visitors here is to check out the Glenveagh Castle.

Of course, the castle itself was not too shabby for a little bit of a historical deep dive into this part of the far north of Ireland.

Yet I had to earn my sighting of this waterfall by going even further than the busy Glenveagh Castle, and that was where the subtleties of Nature really took over with side cascades, lots of greenery, and some wildflowers to boot (at least as of my mid-July 2024 visit).

Oh yeah, the size of this waterfall definitely made it one of the largest that I’ve seen throughout Ireland, and yet I had to earn it with a bit of a half-day of hiking to even see it (which really weeded out the crowds).

So that made the overall experience that much more tranquil and rewarding, and why I remembered this experience fondly as I felt it embodied the spirit of the natural side of Ireland…

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Below are a few more Top 10 lists of the waterfalls we’ve visited.

See the rest of our Top 10 Lists