About O’Sullivan’s Cascade
O’Sullivan’s Cascade is a modestly-sized waterfall tumbling into the western shores of Lough Leane (on the opposite side of the lake to the bustling Killarney).
The waterfall resides in the forested Tomies Wood, which recently re-opened in December 2020 and is one of Ireland’s oldest oak forests.
The woodland resides within the boundaries of Killarney National Park, but it feels more like a more understated and serene waterfall excursion, especially when you compare it to Torc Waterfall.
In fact, I’d argue that this relative tranquility is the main appeal of the O’Sullivan’s Cascade, especially when you consider that you have to hike to earn your sighting of this waterfall.
That said, the hiking involved to access O’Sullivan’s Cascade also includes teasing glimpses of Lough Leane as well as accessing its shores further downstream of the waterfall itself.
Speaking of the waterfall, it’s said to be only 20ft tall, but I’d say maybe about 33ft (10m) in cumulative height is probably more accurate since it does have quite a bit of run in its overall descent.
As for accessing the falls, I had the option of doing a 6km loop trail or a more straightforward 4.4km round-trip out-and-back hike (according to my GPS logs).
The longer loop hike encompassed both the so-called high road and low road portions of the Tomies Wood, while the out-and-back hike stayed on the low road portion.
For the record, I ended up doing the shorter out-and-back option, and that’s what I’ll describe in the trail description next.
O’Sullivan’s Cascade Trail Description
From the Tomies Wood car park (it opens from 08:00 to 18:00 daily; see directions below), I went past the vehicle barricade and followed a fairly wide and established path.
I kept right at the initial fork (the path on the left was a false path), then I continued another 250m to a signed trail fork, where I then kept left to stay on the so-called “low road”.
From there, I continued about another 1.5km on a gently ascending path passing between the old oaks as well as some shrubs while obscuring teasing glimpses of Lough Leane throughout this portion of the hike.
Eventually, the trail reached another signed junction, where a narrower trail descended more steeply to the left towards the O’Sullivan’s Cascade.
About another 250m along a wooden railing path and down some steps, the trail reached another junction.
From here, the path on the left descended another 50-60m to the shores of Lough Leane while the path on the right followed another 100m along the stream towards the O’Sullivan’s Cascade.
After having my fill of this spot, I went back the way I came in and didn’t continue doing the longer loop so I can’t say what the highlights of doing that would be.
Nevertheless, when all was said and done, I spent about 90 relaxing minutes away from the car encompassing both the lake shore and the waterfall.
Authorities
O’Sullivan’s Cascade is in Killarney National Park near the city of Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland. It is administered by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the Killarney National Park website.
O’Sullivan’s Cascade is near the city of Killarney.
Given that this is a sensible base for exploring the Ring of Kerry (including O’Sullivan’s Cascade), I’ll describe the driving directions from that city.
From the oval roundabout just south of the St Mary’s Church of Ireland in the city centre of Killarney, we had a choice of going north on the N71 to the roundabout with the N22 or the R877 to the roundabout with the N22.
Either way, we then headed west on the N72 towards the signed turnoff towards the Gap of Dunloe (Gap Road) on the left, which was about 5km west of the R872 junction or 5.1km west of the N71 junction.
After turning left onto Gap Road, we’d then follow this road for about 2.6km to an easy-to-miss turnoff on the left for Lough Leane.
From there, we then followed this rural road (almost single-lane) for about 700m before turning right at the next fork (not crossing the bridge).
Then, we drove the remaining 1.1km on the single-lane road to its end at the Tomies Wood car park.
Note that there was a gate or barricade early on in the final 1km stretch, which I’d imagine would close when the car park is full or if it’s outside of open hours (08:00 to 18:00 daily).
Parking here was free as of our July 2024 visit, but I could easily envision this car park filling up so an early start would be advisable (I started my hike a little after 10am on a Wednesday, but had plenty of parking at the time).
Overall, this drive should take less than 30 minutes.
For context, Killarney is about 42km (under 60 minutes drive) north of Kenmare, about 67km (over an hour drive) north of Glengarriff, 64km (over an hour drive) southeast of Dingle, about 77km (over an hour drive) south of Tarbert, 78km (about 90 minutes drive) east of Portmagee, 88km (about 90 minutes drive) northwest of Cork, about 117km (under 2 hours drive) southwest of Limerick, and 308km (about 4 hours drive) southwest of Dublin.
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Brief downstream to upstream sweep from the end of the spur trail for the cascades
Downstream to upstream sweep starting with obstructed view of Lough Leane and ending at the cascades
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