Overview
The Inchavore River is about the closest thing Wicklow has to a geography lesson on the ground. As it crosses the flat floor of its valley toward Lough Dan, it loops in ox-bow bends so neat they look traced from a schoolbook diagram. This is a slow lowland river, not a mountain torrent: the name (Irish: Inse Mhór) means simply the Great Inch – inse is a river meadow, the wide grassy plain that flanks the water, a place-name common along rivers in the east of the country where the west would say srath.
The river rises up on Duff Hill and empties into Lough Dan from the north-west; from there its water runs on through the Cloghoge River and into the Avonmore. If you only have an hour, the flat walk in to the floodplain is the whole point – bring binoculars, not summit ambitions.
Landscape & Geology
The valley is a deep, U-shaped trough gouged out by a glacier in the last Ice Age, and the slow river has since cut those looping ox-bow bends across its flat floor. On the far side the ground rears up into the steep, rocky slopes known locally as the Scoils or Scoyles – from the Irish scoilt, split – for the fissured, broken ground dropping away from the Cloghoge peaks. The whole valley lies within Wicklow Mountains National Park and the Wicklow Mountains Special Area of Conservation, which protects the mix of wetland, broadleaf woodland and open meadow.
Access
The Inchavore valley is private land — working farmland, the Lough Dan Scout Centre’s grounds, and estate ground beyond — and there is no public right of way across it. Whatever access exists is permission granted by the landowners, and it is theirs to set or withdraw.
For that reason we don’t publish a route here. If you want to walk the valley, the Lough Dan Scout Centre is the only authority on whether that is currently possible and on what terms; ask them first rather than setting out on a description found online. Do not attempt to reach the valley from the Lough Dan or Luggala side, where the landowners have made clear that visitors are not welcome.
Wildlife & nature
The slow water and surrounding rushes make good habitat for wetland birds. Watch for dippers and grey wagtails working the shallows, herons and cormorants near the river’s mouth, and peregrine falcons on the crags above the valley; the woodland edges hold red grouse, merlin and hen harriers. Mammals are harder to catch – deer, hares and otters use the river corridor, mostly at first and last light.
The river for kayakers
Come at it from the other extreme and the Inchavore is a serious whitewater run: a grade 3–5 route of tight, technical, rocky paddling that only comes into its own after heavy rain, finishing in Lough Dan. Both the put-in and the lake are on private ground, so this is a run to arrange with the landowners rather than one to simply turn up for, and it is expert water in any case.
Conservation
The valley is a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area. The wetland, broadleaf woodland and open meadow here support breeding birds — red grouse, merlin and hen harrier among them — that are sensitive to disturbance, which is a large part of why access across the valley is controlled rather than open.
Nearby, on public ground
- Glendalough – waymarked trails and two lakes, open to the public.
- Glenmacnass Waterfall – a roadside stop off the Military Road.
- The Wicklow Way – the waymarked route along the ridge to the north-east.
- Ballinastoe MBT – mountain-bike trails off the R759.