Glenevin Waterfall

Clonmany, County Donegal, Ireland

About Glenevin Waterfall


Hiking Distance: 1.8km round-trip
Suggested Time: about 1 hour

Date first visited: 2024-07-17
Date last visited: 2024-07-17

Waterfall Latitude: 55.26249
Waterfall Longitude: -7.44425

Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

The Glenevin Waterfall is a quaint 40ft waterfall at the end of gentle, family-friendly path situated in the far north of Ireland not far from Malin Head (another site of Star Wars fame).

The walk involved a lookout as well as lots of miniature buildings that seemed to be a hit with photo ops as well as engaging the youth as well as the young-at-heart.

Glenevin_065_07172024 - Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin Waterfall

This trail is actually the result of the efforts of the late Doris Russo, who had retired to Inishowen from the state of Illinois, USA in the early 90s.

When she acquired this property, she didn’t know about the waterfall, but with the help of a neighbour named Michael Devlin, they cut through the bush to eventually reveal it.

Upon seeing the falls, Doris was determined that this feature should be accessible to everyone, and thus she started a community project to maintain the park.

Since then, a wide 1km path along the Glenevin Stream (though my GPS log suggested that we had walked about 900m each way or 1.8km round-trip) had become the main feature of the Glenevin Park.

Glenevin_016_07172024 - Context of the family-friendly walk within Glenevin Park on the way to the Glenevin Waterfall
Context of the family-friendly walk within Glenevin Park on the way to the Glenevin Waterfall

Although the Glenevin Waterfall and its surrounding park is privately owned, our visit in July 2024 was actually free (this included parking as well as the visit itself).

That said, the park relies on donations to maintain this kind of arrangement, and it sounded like it’s a precarious arrangement due to a combination of a lack of volunteers and restrictions on who can participate in this project.

As for the excursion itself, it began from a gate with a donation box that went just past a Craft House and Ice Cream Parlour with adjacent toilets and a tea room.

From there, we pretty much just followed a well-maintained and gently upslope path with lots of picnic tables as well as cute, miniature buildings along the way.

Glenevin_111_07172024 - The lookout taking in Clonmany, Rockstown Bay, and the mountains backing the Glenevin Park
The lookout taking in Clonmany, Rockstown Bay, and the mountains backing the Glenevin Park

At around 300m into this hike, there was a spur trail ascending up towards the left side, which went to a lookout peering over the town of Clonmany as well as the Rockstown Bay in the distance.

Continuing along the trail, it passed by more picnic tables and colourful miniature buildings before eventually reaching a bench and footbridge before the Glenevin Waterfall.

There was a plaque dedicated in the honour of Doris Russo here as well as signage discussing her importance to establishing the Glenevin Park.

But aside from taking pictures and being content with being around the waterfall, this was the turnaround point.

Glenevin_109_07172024 - Context of the spur trail leading past one of the miniature structures up towards the lookout
Context of the spur trail leading past one of the miniature structures up towards the lookout

So overall, we spent around an hour away from the car, which included a detour to an overlook in addition to the Glenevin Waterfall itself.

Authorities

The Glenevin Waterfall is near the village of Clonmany in County Donegal, Ireland. It is currently privately owned but maintained by a combination of community members and the current owners themselves. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Inishowen Tourism Office website.

Glenevin_006_07172024 - Looking towards the entrance of the Glenevin Park and the shops by the trailhead at the Glen House before getting over to the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_007_07172024 - Checking out a cute little ice cream and sweets shop at the trailhead for the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_008_07172024 - The gate leading to the entrance to the trail leading to the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_011_07172024 - Julie and Tahia on a very benign and well-developed stroll leading to the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_013_07172024 - Looking towards some picnic tables by the trail leading to the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_019_07172024 - Closeup look at one of the miniature buildings along the trail to the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_020_07172024 - Julie and Tahia walking past a rest bench on the well-developed path leading to the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_023_07172024 - Looking towards some kind of seeping wet cliff seen along the trail to the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_032_07172024 - A picnic table and another one of those miniature houses seen throughout the short hike to the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_041_07172024 - Making it up to the attractive Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_047_07172024 - Broad look at the Glenevin Waterfall in long-exposure
Glenevin_060_07172024 - More contextual long exposure look at the Glenevin Waterfall from the footbridge
Glenevin_078_07172024 - Another broad long-exposed look at the attractive Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_097_07172024 - Context of the benches, a plaque, and some other folks enjoying the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_101_07172024 - Heading back past some picnic tables after having had our fill of the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_107_07172024 - Closeup look at some side cascade by a brief split detour along the well-developed walk for the Glenevin Waterfall
Glenevin_113_07172024 - Looking towards the scenery to the north from the lookout within Glenevin Park
Glenevin_120_07172024 - Looking back in the other direction towards some mountains backing the area behind the Glenevin Park
Glenevin_122_07172024 - Looking in the direction of Clonmany from the lookout within Glenevin Park
Glenevin_123_07172024 - The gate before the lookout within Glenevin Park
Glenevin_127_07172024 - Continuing to head back towards the car park towards the end of our Glenevin Waterfall excursion


The Glenevin Waterfall resides in Glenevin Park near the town of Clonmany.

However, since the nearest cities or towns of note are either Londonderry (Northern Ireland) or Letterkenny, I’ll also describe the driving directions from these places.

Drive_to_Malin_Head_008_MingSung_07172024 - There are quite a few approaches to get to Glenevin Waterfall from Derry, and one of them is the drive to the R240 along the coastal route on the R238 to get to Carndonagh before reaching Clonmany and ultimately the Glenevin Waterfall
There are quite a few approaches to get to Glenevin Waterfall from Derry, and one of them is the drive to the R240 along the coastal route on the R238 to get to Carndonagh before reaching Clonmany and ultimately the Glenevin Waterfall

From Londonderry, the most straightforward route would be to drive north along Strand Road towards the Pennyburn Roundabout (intersecting with Buncrana Road).

Taking the first exit of this roundabout onto the A2 towards Buncrana (as well as Letterkenny and Pennyburn), it becomes the N13 as we cross back into the Republic of Ireland.

Anyways, we’d then drive for about 3.3km from the Pennyburn Roundabout towards a roundabout with a branch leading to the R238 Road (towards Buncrana and Carndonagh).

Then we drove the R238 north for about 19km towards the town of Clonmany, where we’d then deviate from the R238 to remain on Main Street.

Drive_to_Glenevin_033_MingSung_07172024 - Deviating from the R238 Road to stay on Main Street in Clonmany and following the signs towards the Glenevin Waterfall
Deviating from the R238 Road to stay on Main Street in Clonmany and following the signs towards the Glenevin Waterfall

By now, there should be a sign for the Glen House and the Glenevin Waterfall, and we’d continue following the signs (which kept us on Main Street) for another 1.2km before reaching the car park on the left.

Overall, this drive should take no more than an hour.

If you’re coming from Letterkenny, then you pretty much just have to drive east on the N56 then keep left to leave the N56 to go onto the N13 at the Dry Arch Roundabout.

Once on the N13, then you’d drive about 4km to the next roundabout where the first exit remains on the N13 bound for Derry and Malin Head.

Glenevin_003_07172024 - This is the signed turnoff leading to the car park for the Glenevin Waterfall
This is the signed turnoff leading to the car park for the Glenevin Waterfall

From there, we’d drive another 18km for the R239 Road on the left (pointing the way to the R238), and then we’d follow this connector road for about 2.7km onto its junction with the R238 Road.

Then, we’d turn left and drive on the R238 Road the rest of the 16km or so towards Clonmany and ultimately the Glenevin Waterfall as described above.

Overall, this drive would take about an hour or so.

For context, Clonmany is about 12km (about 15 minutes drive) west of Carndonagh, about 25 miles (under an hour drive) north of Londonderry(Northern Ireland), about 58km (about an hour drive) northeast of Letterkenny, about 100km (about 90 minutes drive) northeast of Donegal, about 95 miles (about 2 hours drive) northwest of Belfast (Northern Ireland), and 274km (about 4 hours drive) northwest of Dublin.

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Downstream to upstream sweep from the bridge before finishing the video on the near side of its banks


Left to right sweep from the far side of the bridge showing context as well as a closer look at the falling water


Right to left sweep from the near side of the bridge before walking across and doing another sweep from there

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Tagged with: straid, clonmany, donegal, glenevin valley, ireland, family, malin head, free, donation, ulster



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Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
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