About Glencar Waterfall
Glencar Waterfall is a popular excursion on the north shore of Glencar Lough (Glencar Lake) in County Leitrim just to the east of its border with County Sligo.
This waterfall’s popularity stood out to me because I didn’t really see nor understand why this was the case.
After all, the falls was fairly mid-sized and plunging with a height of 50ft (roughly 15m) as there were plenty of other waterfalls that seemed to be less popular that actually exceeded this in height and/or width.
It’s also kind of in a seemingly quieter part of the northwest of the Republic of Ireland, and yet there was a tea house as well as an ice cream truck or snack vendor in its parking lot (further confirming its popularity).
I suspect the main reason why this place was so well-visited had to do with its association to the Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet William Butler Yeats.
Yeats could very well have been inspired or at least made a direct reference to the Glencar Waterfall in his work “The Stolen Child”.
Further adding to this place’s appeal, about 300m west of the car park for the waterfall was an area providing swimming access to the Glencar Lough.
As for experiencing the Glencar Waterfall, I merely had to go on a gentle nature walk in a figure-8 loop of about 800-900m in length.
In the lower part of the loop, there were branching paths allowing you to choose whether to stick close to the stream (minor rapids and all) or to go on a wider, more direct path.
These lower paths eventually converge near a bridge fronting a trail junction with a bench and a circular “roundabout”.
This trail junction marked the beginning and end of the upper part of the loop, where signs had us walk this upper loop in a counterclockwise manner.
On the approach to the Glencar Waterfall, the best viewing spot was where the trail veered to the left right before a lookout yielding a profile view of the falls at the base of ascending steps.
This was the only clean view of the waterfall that I was able to get.
So after having my fill of this spot, I then continued going up the steps, which led to the rim of the gorge skirting by someone’s open pasture (though the trail still remained beneath tree cover).
Eventually, this upper loop circled back to the “roundabout” with a rest bench, and that was where I then just went back to the car park via the wider, more direct route.
Overall, I wound up spending about 35 minutes away from the car on the waterfall excursion alone, but I easily could have lingered at the tea room or snacked away at the food truck in the car park.
Authorities
The Glencar Waterfall is straddles the County Sligo/Leitrim border near the city of Sligo, but it’s actually in County Leitrim, Ireland. It is managed by the Leitrim County Council. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Leitrim Tourism website.
The Glencar Waterfall is located near the city of Sligo.
That said, the waterfall straddles the Leitrim side of the county border between Sligo and Leitrim.
I’ll describe the approach to the Glencar Waterfall from Sligo since that was where we stayed at the time.
From Sligo, the most straightforward route would be to follow the N16 Road for about 7.5km before reaching the signed turnoff for Glencar Waterfall on the left.
We then took this access road and followed it for about 4.8km to the well-established car park for the Glencar Waterfall and the Glencar Lough.
This car park was roughly 1.6km east of the elongated lay-by opposite the Glencar Lough for the Devil’s Chimney.
Overall, this nearly 13km drive should take about 15 minutes though there was some road construction on the N16 requiring us to wait at lights as we going on a brief detour to avoid the construction zone.
For context, Sligo was about 23km (less than 30 minutes drive) west of Manorhamilton, 64km (under an hour drive) south of Donegal, about 138km (under 2 hours drive) north of Galway, about 86 miles (under 2 hours drive) southwest of Londonderry (Northern Ireland), 124 miles (about 2.5 hours drive) west of Belfast (Northern Ireland), and 209km (about 2.5 hours drive) northwest of Dublin.
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Downstream to upstream sweep starting from a bridge showing some lower cascades before walking closer to a lookout before the steps before the main falls
Checking out the falls from the nearest spot to see it
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