Ireland Waterfall

Glenmacnass Waterfall

A 80 m drop.

When to go

Darren Sweeney · CC BY 2.0

In numbers.

80m

Height

0.66m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Apr
Sep–Nov

Best months

520kW

Water power

estimate

The water at Glenmacnass Waterfall, month by month

It roars from October to January.

The fullest months: from October to January.

1.0 m³/sJan
0.7 m³/sFeb
0.6 m³/sMar
0.4 m³/sApr
0.3 m³/sMay
0.3 m³/sJun
0.3 m³/sJul
0.4 m³/sAug
0.4 m³/sSep
0.8 m³/sOct
1.1 m³/sNov
1.2 m³/sDec

high water best months to go

From about 0.26 m³/s in the lowest month to 1.2 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: April and from September to November.

Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.

Waterfall in Wicklow, Ireland

Glenmacnass Waterfall is a waterfall in Ireland. The water falls 80 m.

Getting there.

Valleymountnearest town · 15 km in a straight line
Parking 280 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
Dublin Airport (DUB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 41 km in a straight lineCar hire at DUB airport (Dublin)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
April and from September to Novemberbest months to go (estimate)

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

Car hire at DUB airport (Dublin)Discover CarsSee

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

How big is it?

How big it really is.

Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

520 kW

About 0.66 m³/s falling 80 m: the power of the water as it drops.

enough to power about 130 homes, if it were all turned into electricity

Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.

Seen from the sky.

8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.

Glenmacnass Waterfall seen from above (Sentinel-2)

N 2 km

ParkingOther fallsCampsites

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The Glenmacnass River through the falls

The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.

The valley below the falls

Around the falls the river drops 136 m in 3.3 km. Here the river runs about 163 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

—viewpoints
—waymarked walking routes
1car parks
—swimming spots
—picnic sites
—toilets
—information boards and visitor centres
—bus stops within 1 km
—other named waterfalls within 4 km
—caves
4campsitesWild camping spot (legal), Glendalough Glamping, Wicklow Way Camping and 1 more
7hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmGlendalough Hotel, Riversdale House, Lough Dan House B&B and 4 more
—restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Towns nearby

Valleymount15 km in a straight line
Newtownmountkennedy15 km in a straight line
Kilpedder16 km in a straight line
Ashford16 km in a straight line
Rathdrum16 km in a straight line
Kilquade17 km in a straight line
Blessington18 km in a straight line
Kilcoole19 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Afternoon °C	6	6	7	9	12	15	16	16	14	12	8	7
Night °C	2	2	2	4	6	9	11	11	9	8	5	3
Rain & snow (mm)	97	79	78	67	70	79	83	93	81	116	121	114
Wet days	18	16	16	15	14	14	17	16	14	18	20	19
Sun h/day	1.7	2.9	4.1	5.7	6.6	6.1	5.4	4.8	4.6	3.2	2.2	1.4
Snow on the ground (cm)	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (328 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Glenmacnass in the mist — kilgarron · CC BY 2.0

Glenmacnass River — kilgarron · CC BY 2.0

Glenmacnass Waterfall — DubhEire · CC BY-SA 3.0

Recent years

Wet years and dry years

Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2020	79%	239%	61%	59%	24%	120%	141%	171%	175%	109%	98%	123%
2021	165%	134%	80%	31%	195%	43%	87%	188%	83%	129%	37%	102%
2022	34%	147%	71%	70%	104%	93%	51%	48%	171%	142%	108%	89%
2023	73%	29%	176%	127%	49%	73%	168%	290%	205%	172%	82%	131%
2024	94%	146%	163%	170%	90%	71%	232%	71%	103%	68%	77%	149%
2025	128%	99%	29%	168%	77%	111%	113%	50%	196%	98%	145%	113%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Glenmacnass Waterfall

Ireland

80 mHeight
0.66 m³/sAverage flow
Apr, Sep–NovBest months

Powerscourt Waterfall

Ireland

121 mHeight
0.32 m³/sAverage flow
Apr, Sep–NovBest months

See the guide

Poulaphouca

Ireland

20 mHeight
7.5 m³/sAverage flow
Mar, Sep–NovBest months

See the guide

Devil's Appendix

United Kingdom

—Height
—Average flow
Jul–OctBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, river	Wikidata (Q15221764) · CC0
River flow and catchment	HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
Climate	NASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D model	Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking	© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Images	EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.