Ireland 
In numbers.
20m
Height
OpenStreetMap
7.5m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Mar
Sep–Nov
Best months
1.5MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Poulaphouca, month by month
It roars from October to February.
The fullest months: from October to February.
- 12 m³/sJan
- 8.1 m³/sFeb
- 6.3 m³/sMar
- 4.4 m³/sApr
- 2.9 m³/sMay
- 3.0 m³/sJun
- 3.9 m³/sJul
- 6.0 m³/sAug
- 5.2 m³/sSep
- 9.3 m³/sOct
- 13 m³/sNov
- 13 m³/sDec
From about 2.9 m³/s in the lowest month to 13 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: March 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 and bridge in County Wicklow, Ireland
Poulaphouca is a waterfall in Ireland. The water falls 20 m over a front 10 m wide.
Getting there.
- Valleymountnearest town · 2.7 km in a straight line
- Parking 220 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↗
- March and from September to Novemberbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
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 as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
1.5 MW
About 7.5 m³/s falling 20 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 368 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.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
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.
Around the falls the river drops 46 m in 1.4 km.
What is around.
- 2viewpoints
- 1waymarked walking routesBlessington to Hollywood Village
- 17car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- 2information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- —campsites
- 37hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmMonavalla B&B, Avon Rí, Humphrystown House and 34 more
- 5restaurants 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
- Valleymount2.7 km in a straight line
- Blessington6.9 km in a straight line
- Eadestown9.6 km in a straight line
- Kilcullen11 km in a straight line
- Old Kilcullen12 km in a straight line
- Naas12 km in a straight line
- Athgarvan14 km in a straight line
- Johnstown14 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 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 7 |
| Night °C | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 2 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 92 | 75 | 76 | 68 | 75 | 89 | 96 | 104 | 84 | 107 | 107 | 104 |
| Wet days | 17 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 19 | 18 | 15 | 17 | 18 | 17 |
| 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) | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.
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 | 83% | 255% | 73% | 63% | 28% | 119% | 144% | 162% | 211% | 123% | 125% | 115% |
| 2021 | 163% | 149% | 90% | 35% | 182% | 46% | 101% | 225% | 84% | 134% | 40% | 108% |
| 2022 | 39% | 155% | 71% | 73% | 99% | 97% | 53% | 46% | 161% | 152% | 115% | 93% |
| 2023 | 83% | 38% | 194% | 119% | 54% | 77% | 167% | 266% | 185% | 166% | 82% | 150% |
| 2024 | 93% | 153% | 167% | 169% | 106% | 71% | 226% | 77% | 99% | 70% | 88% | 182% |
| 2025 | 126% | 110% | 40% | 158% | 87% | 110% | 97% | 52% | 168% | 109% | 152% | 112% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Poulaphouca
Ireland
- 20 mHeight
- 7.5 m³/sAverage flow
- Mar, Sep–NovBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q3775762) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| 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.
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