Ireland's Hidden Waterfall

Just west of the town of Killybegs is Ireland's Secret Waterfall... or sometimes called Ireland's Hidden Waterfall. I just happened to notice it while I was searching Google Maps for things to do in the area.

Pretty easy to see why it has the name that it does. First, there's limited parking in the area. There's a roadside viewpoint that many cars stop at, but most people don't know to go for a short walk. There are no signs advertising this natural attraction. And, most importantly, it can only be accessed right at low tide.

And even on Google Maps, the listing shows where the gate is from the highway that leads down through private farmland to the sea. But again, there are no signs telling you to go right or left once you reach the rocky shoreline. (You go right!)

You need to walk down to this peninsula at low tide, then go right.

First, we headed left. That was the wrong way!

Low tide was at 10:45am yesterday, and we arrived just after that. I would guess that you maybe have a two hour window... an hour before, and an hour after where it would be safe to access the cave where the waterfall is. Otherwise you really do risk being stranded until the next low tide period!

You have to do some clambering on the interesting rocks for about 400 meters.

Very cool rock shelf!

No, this is not the cave with the waterfall.

But this is.

While it's not well known, we're not the only ones who do this kind of research. So there were in fact a few other people doing the same thing.

I took a video for you of our arrival at the Secret Waterfall...

Notice that there were some young people bold enough to take a shower under the cold water. Brrr!

Ruth and the waterfall.

From the inside looking out.

Clambering over the rocks to get back out.

Almost looks man made.

From there, we continued west to the Sliabh Liag hiking area. This is another popular natural area with what are said to be the highest sea cliffs in Europe. Unfortunately, it's become so popular that in 2021 they built a little tourist center to take advantage of the tourist dollars and they now charge €6 per person for a 3.5 km bus ride to the starting point of the walks. Yes, you could walk the 3.5 kms each way yourself along the side of the road, (on top of the actual walk) and we were tempted to do it but it was so windy, and with showers in the forecast it would not have been an enjoyable hike. We ended up taking a pass.

We continued on to the village of Glencolumbkille.

Pub along the way.

It was not the nicest day for scenery photos!

Viewpoint overlooking Glencolumbkille.

There are lots of hikes to do in this area.

Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow.

An hour later, a patch of blue sky arrived and we got out for a short walk. It was still really windy though, with a temperature of about 17C (63F). Not exactly July 1st weather!

We walked down to Glencolumbkille Beach.

There was a little cove where is was slightly more calm.

Glencolumbkille  has a small folk village.

A stone map of Ireland with each county made from a piece of stone from that country.

We found a decent overnight spot near the sports fields where we could park facing the wind so that Max wouldn't rock too much. And, it was a short walk to the local pub, so we decided to treat ourselves to a pub night out.

Serving customers since 1903!

I think I'm acquiring a taste for Guinness!

Of course not!

Slept alright, but woke up to wind and rain again. And the forecast for the foreseeable future doesn't look much better! Oh well... we had a great stretch of better than average weather, so they can't take that away from us. Forecast high of 14C (58F) today!

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