About Glenmacnass Waterfall
Glenmacnass Waterfall is a large cascade seen right off the Old Military Road in the heart of the Wicklow Mountains just south of the city of Dublin.
The waterfall certainly looked impressive with its combination of slope, width, and cumulative height as the River Glenmacnass dropped some 80m according to Gaia GPS.
Unlike many of the waterfalls that we visited throughout Ireland as well as the UK, the thing about witnessing this waterfall is that it’s free.
However, getting close to this waterfall involves hopping the stone fences and trespassing since it resides in a private farm.
That’s why we were relegated to seeing the Glenmacnass Waterfall from the Old Military Road though I did see some people scramble around the waterfall at their own risk.
Indeed, this is not a formal hike though there is a more famous one to the Lough Ouler (i.e. the Heart-Shaped Lake; taking typically over 3 hours).
Speaking of hiking, from the free car park upstream from the top of the Glenmacnass Waterfall (see directions below), we pretty much went about 800m downhill before turning around.
Along the way, the views varied from looking straight over the top of the waterfall to more angled profile views before finally getting a direct (albeit distant) view of the same waterfall.
The walk downhill (and uphill on the return) along the Old Military Road was typically met by a handful of vehicles going in either direction with little to no shoulder to get out of the way.
So we definitely had to make sure we stayed off to the side of the road before continuing to explore what views we could attain.
In any case, we wound up taking our time checking out the falls, and ultimately we had spent about 50 minutes away from the car (though it could have been less than that).
Authorities
The Glenmacnass Waterfall is in the Wicklow Mountains National Park near the town of Laragh in County Wicklow, Ireland. Even though it’s within the National Park boundaries, it is privately owned and managed. However, the owners absolve any duty of care, which means they’re not responsible for any injuries or accidents involved people who happened to get hurt on their land. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the NPWS website.
The Glenmacnass Waterfall resides near the town of Laragh.
I’ll describe a couple of ways of getting there from the Dublin Airport since that was where we picked up the rental car and made our way to this waterfall.
I’ll first describe the most straightforward way of getting to this waterfall according to GoogleMaps.
Then I’ll describe how we drove here from the Powercourt Waterfall (you can consult that page for driving directions on getting to that waterfall from the Dublin Airport).
Driving from Dublin Airport to Glenmacnass Waterfall
From the Dublin Airport, we promptly made our way to the nearest entrance of the M50 Motorway (toll) some 5km from the airport.
This involved going down the R132 Road south for about 500-600m to its junction with the Old Airport Road.
We then turned right onto Old Airport Road and continued for about 850m before taking the 3rd exit at the roundabout to get onto the M50 Ramp.
Once on the M50, we would then follow it for about 18km towards the exit 11 for the N81 in the direction of Tallaght.
Once on the N81 heading to Tallaght, we’d then drive west for about 16km before turning left onto the narrow L7345 Road.
We’d then follow the L7345 Road for about 14km to its junction with the R759 Road, where we’d turn left and head towards the Sally Gap.
Note that if driving the L7345 is not desirable (since GoogleMaps likes to take you on narrow roads), you can also stay on the N81 Road for another 2-3km or so before turning left onto the R759 towards Sally Gap.
Once on the R759, we’d then follow it for about 14-16km (depending on whether you took L7345 or not), before turning right onto Old Military Road/R115 towards Laragh and Glendalough.
Finally, we’d drive the Old Military Road for about 12km to the car park for both Glenmacnass Waterfall and the Lough Ouler hike.
Overall, this drive would take about 90 minutes.
Driving from Powerscourt Waterfall to Glenmacnass Waterfall
From the Powerscourt Waterfall entrance, we turned right onto the R760 Road and drive for 1.2km to the R755 Road.
Turning right onto R755 Road towards Laragh/Glendalough, we then drove 21km into the town of Laragh, where we then turned right onto the Old Military Road/R115 towards Sallygap.
From there, we then drove 7.5km on the R115 to the car park just upstream from the Glenmacnass Waterfall (note that you can see the waterfall as the road ascends to its brink and ultimately the car park).
Even though there were some makeshift pullouts along the R115 Road around the Glenmacnass Waterfall vicinity, I would recommend against using them as parking spots.
That’s because they’re meant to allow opposing traffic to pass each other on the single-lane-road, and using them as car parks will deny them the chance to make that maneuver.
Overall, this drive took us about 50 minutes.
For context, Laragh is about 26km (over 30 minutes drive) southwest of Enniskerry, about 22km (30 minutes drive) west of Wicklow, about 51km (about 90 minutes drive) southwest of Dublin, 106km (about 90 minutes drive) northeast of Kilkenny, and 101km (about 90 minutes drive) north of Wexford.
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Back and forth sweep providing a profile look at the cascading waterfall as seen from early on along the narrow road
Downstream to upstream sweep of the falls and the valley it's in while also showing the road and some of the activity around the top of the falls
Downstream to upstream sweep from the furthest position down the road that I wound up going to
Downstream to upstream sweep while showing the road activity and some people at the top of the falls for some scale while revealing a more profiled angle of the falls
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