Lakes, Rivers & Waterfalls in County Leitrim

Two very different waters run through this county. In the north, under the Dartry Mountains, Glencar Waterfall drops 15 metres into a mossy pool a short walk from a free car park and boardwalk, with Glencar Lough stretching west along the Sligo border. The same valley holds the Devil’s Chimney, at 150 metres Ireland’s tallest fall, which only runs after heavy rain. Fowley’s Falls near Rossinver is a run of cascades over blue limestone on the Glenaniff River, with a 3km riverside path linking the falls to the Organic Centre, and Glenade Lough fills a glacial trough of its own, a Special Area of Conservation carrying the legend of the Dobhar-chú.

South and east, the water flattens out. The Shannon is at its calmest here, wide and slow not far from its Cavan source, with Carrick-on-Shannon and Leitrim Village as the launch points for self-drive cruisers, kayaks and the Shannon Blueway. The Shannon-Erne Waterway runs 63km from there to Upper Lough Erne through 16 self-service locks. Ballinamore sits on that canal with 40 coarse-fishing lakes inside a 10km radius; Rockfield Lake, on the Cavan border east of Carrigallen, has no facilities at all.

The border lakes form a third group: Lough Melvin at Kinlough, and Lough MacNean at the heart of the Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark. The falls and the Bonet River at Dromahair are rain-fed, so wet weather works in your favour.