About Glenariff Waterfalls
Glenariff Waterfalls are what I’m associating with a pair of named waterfalls within in the Glenariff Forest Park, which is situated near the scenic Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland.
The two waterfalls that I’m referring to are the Ess-na-Crub (a semi-wide block-type waterfall on the Inver River) and the Ess-na-Larach (a taller gushing multi-drop waterfall on the Glenariff River).
There’s actually a third waterfall called Hermit’s Falls in the reserve further upstream along the Glenariff River, but I didn’t get a chance to visit that one so I won’t say anything more about it.
Nevertheless, regarding the Ess-na-Crub (“fall of the hooves”) and Ess-na-Larach Waterfalls (“fall of the mare”), they both have Irish names, and even Glenariff is derived from Irish for “valley of the ploughman”.
While Ireland and Northern Ireland in general have many glens throughout the island, this Ice Age-shaped valley is regarded as the “Queen of the Glens” thanks to its size as well as the presence of these waterfalls.
As for experiencing these waterfalls, we had a choice of going to the main car park and hiking from there, or going to the Larach Lodge (see directions below) and really reduce the total hiking distance.
In particular, our hike from the Larach Lodge to the Ess-na-Crub was a mere 100-150m walk taking us about 2 minutes.
Our hike from the Larach Lodge to the Ess-na-Larach was about 450m, and that took us about 7 minutes or so.
There was an intermediate waterfall or two roughly 150m downstream of the Ess-na-Larach or roughly 300m from the Larach Lodge.
Both of the named waterfalls were on separate trail branches that deviate near the Larach Lodge so the total hiking distance was more-or-less a sum of the two round-trips.
Therefore, that wound up being about 1km of total hiking according to my GPS logs.
I did briefly explore past the Ess-na-Larach though the trail kept climbing going in the direction towards the main car park and ultimately the Hermit’s Falls.
That said, the hiking distance would be considerably longer from the main car park to explore all the waterfalls (said to be 3km) though I can’t say more about it since we only did the shorter excursion from the Larach Lodge.
While the hiking distances were modest, and the trail was well-developed with only mild elevation changes, it did make us sweat.
That was a result of the Glenariff Forest having a bit of humidity given the fair, partly cloudy early afternoon weather of our mid-July visit combined with the moist climate of this part of the Antrim Coast.
Overall, we spent about 55 minutes on the trail, including the time spent lingering at each of the waterfalls as well as the intermediate ones.
Authorities
The Glenariff Waterfalls are in the Glenariff Forest Park near the town of Cushendall in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. It is administered by the Northern Ireland Forest Service. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the NI Direct website.
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