Torc Waterfall

The Torc Waterfall resides very close to the city of Killarney.

Due to the limited amount of spaces for the car park closest to the waterfall combined with its proximity to the town of Killarney (and resulting popularity), there can be a bit of confusion about what the fallback options are if parking spaces are full.

So in this section, I’ll describe each of the options that I’m aware of starting with the closest lot (which we managed to score).

Each of the directions assumes we’re starting from the oval roundabout where the R877 and N71 roads intersect in the city centre of Killarney (just south of the St Mary’s Church of Ireland).

By the way, as far as I know, all of these parking options are free (we can confirm this for both the Torc Waterfall car park as well as the Muckross House and Garden car park).

The Closest Car Park by N71 Road

From the oval roundabout, we took the N71 going south for about 6.6km to the car park for the Torc Waterfall on the left.

The walk from this car park to the Torc Waterfall is about 250-300m each way on a very gentle and well-developed trail.

This drive should take no more than 15 minutes (with most of the time consumed in the traffic jams in Killarney), but it really depends on the traffic situation.

As far as I could recall, there was probably parking for about 3-4 dozen cars at most (don’t quote me on this) at this car park.

The point is that this lot fills up quickly, and we were able to score it because we showed up late in the afternoon (almost around early dinner time) when after a spout of rainy weather.

If the parking here is full, then you’d have to pursue other options, which I’ll get to below.

The Upper Car Park from Old Kenmare Road

The next closest option for parking is the so-called Upper Car Park along the Old Kenmare Road.

This car park goes down a somewhat steep trail with steps to make the walking more manageable.

It’s probably slightly longer than the trail from the nearest car park, and the elevation loss (and gain on the return) means you’ll have to provide a little more physical exertion.

In any case, to get to this car park from the oval roundabout in Killarney, we’d drive south on the N71 for about 5.3km to a signed turnoff on the left for Old Kenmare Road.

This turnoff just 300m south of the signed turnoff for the Muckross House and Gardens.

Once on the Old Kenmare Road, then we’d drive for another 1.7km to the National Park car park on the left.

Overall, this drive should also take around 15 minutes or so.

This car park could accommodate more vehicles than the nearest one to the Torc Waterfall mentioned earlier.

However, you have to keep in mind that many people parking here are also pursuing summiting Torc Mountain or other longer hikes.

So this option can also fill up pretty quickly, especially during the busier times of the day (i.e. not early morning or not late afternoon/early evening).

Car Park West of Closest Car Park by N71 Road

A third option for parking the car to pursue the Torc Waterfall is via a car park west of the waterfall’s nearest car park.

This is one about 500m further to the west of the Torc Waterfall car park as well as another one about 1.2km further to the west than that along the N71 Road (or 1.7km west of the nearest car park).

Therefore, depending on which one you park at, that will extend the walk to the Torc Waterfall by this distance (or up to 3.4km round trip more than the requisite 500-600m walk).

Most of this distance involves walking along the N71 Road, which doesn’t have pedestrian shoulders or margins so you’d definitely want to exercise caution when walking along this road.

So the drive should also take around 15 minutes or so, but the walk can easily involve about 2 hours or so.

The Old Muckross House Car Park

Finally, if all of the aforementioned car parks are full or too stressful to wait for a spot, then it’s possible to park at the Muckross House and Garden.

Parking here was free when we visited in July 2024 (though we parked here only to visit the house and gardens).

However, it would involve about 2.6km walk in each direction (or 5.2km round-trip) to the nearest car park, and then another 250m or so walk (500m round-trip) to the waterfall.

So from the oval roundabout in Killarney city centre, we drove about 5km south on the N71 to the signed turnoff for Muckross House and Gardens on the right.

Once we got to the elongated semi-circular car park, we’d then either walk along the N71 to the car park closest to the Torc Waterfall or follow the eastern shore of Muckross Lake before cutting to the car park closest to the Torc Waterfall.

Either way, you’re looking at a pretty solid 3-hour or so excursion to cover this longer distance.

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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