About Mahon Falls
Mahon Falls (Eas na Machan in Irish Gaelic; pronounced “MAH-hchan”) is a waterfall tumbling into an open valley at the northern end of the so-called Magic Road in the Comeragh Mountains.
The Magic Road is so named because it is known for having a stretch where if you put the car in neutral and let it roll on its own, it appears to be going uphill instead of downhill!
We actually drove through the stretch where it’s claimed that this phenomenon occurs, but we weren’t aware of this quirk at the time so we didn’t get to test it out ourselves.
Nevertheless, Mahon Falls is said to have a cumulative height of 80m as it’s composed of a handful of disjoint drops where the River Mahon tumbles over a rim of sandstone cliffs.
The waterfall looks like a giant as seen from the car park (see directions below), where it was clearly visible at the head of the valley.
However, from closer to its base, the forced perspective of looking up the enclosing cliffs made the sloping waterfall appear shorter than it really was.
In other words, photos don’t really do this waterfall justice.
As for getting to the base of the Mahon Falls, starting from the car park, we pretty much walked on a wide and developed road-turned-walkway right across from the Magic Road.
During our visit in early July 2024, the car park and most of the trail were occupied by lots of sheep (and their dung).
The path was mostly flat with minor undulations, but the wide open valley allowed for us to constantly look ahead at the Mahon Falls while the cliffs continued to close in the further from the car park that we went.
Looking back in the other direction, we could see the Irish Sea in the distance thanks to the Comeragh Mountains’ higher elevation.
As we got closer to the waterfall, the more we started to see rabbits scurrying about and hiding in the large boulders that have tumbled to the valley floor (as opposed of being surrounded by sheep).
The trail eventually started to descend towards the base of the Mahon Falls, and that was pretty much the turnaround point for our hike.
I did see a hiker continue to scramble further up alongside the waterfall to the top of the cliffs and beyond (perhaps to complete a loop hike), but we were content with our shorter hike.
We wound up going roughly 1.2km in each direction (or 2.4km round-trip), and we spent roughly about 90 leisurely minutes away from the car.
Authorities
Mahon Falls is in the Comeragh Mountains near the village of Mahon Bridge in County Waterford, Ireland. It is administered by the Comeragh District of the Waterford City and County Council. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Waterford Council website.
Mahon Falls is in the Comeragh Mountains to the northwest of the town of Kilmacthomas.
That said, since we approached this waterfall from Waterford, I’ll describe the driving directions from there.
From Kilkenny city centre, we drove northwest on a combination of the R680 and the R448, and then eventually the R861 to reach the N25 Motorway (Waterford City Bypass).
This part of the drive was about 5km, and the N25 Motorway is a toll road.
Once on the N25, we then drove 26km to the L3037 Road on the right for Kilmacthomas and Mahon Bridge (there should be signs for Mahon Falls at this point).
Almost immediately after making this right turn, we then turned left at the next three-way junction towards Mahon Bridge, the Comeragh Drive, and the Mahon Falls.
From there, we then followed the rural roads for 3km towards Mahon Bridge as we continued to follow signs for Mahon Falls.
After crossing the R676 Road in Mahon Bridge, we then continued for another 2km or so before turning right onto the Comeragh Drive (and the so-called Magic Road).
Then, we followed this narrow road the rest of the way to the car park for Mahon Falls on the left.
Overall, this drive took us about 40 minutes.
Note that the Comeragh Drive is a loop road so it’s also possible to do this loop in reverse by continuing another 750m or so before turning right onto the other end of the Comeragh Drive.
Then, you’d drive about 2.5km to the car park for Mahon Falls on the right.
For context, Mahon Bridge is about 33km (over 30 minutes drive) west of Waterford, about 55km (about an hour drive) southeast of Cashel, 75km (about an hour drive) south of Kilkenny, 93km (about 1.5 hours drive) northeast of Cork, and 196km (about 2.5 hours drive) southwest of Dublin.
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180 degree sweep early on during the approach to the falls with sounds of sheep and perhaps the most of the falls that's visible from the trail
360 degree sweep from around the half-way part of the trail revealing a secondary cascade besides the main waterfall
720 degree sweep revealing the stream and the sheep-grazing grassy terrain before doing another rotation revealing cliffs surrounding the trail with a final panning of the falls
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