THE GLENS OF SLIEVE BLOOM

GLENBARROW
The best known of the 27 glens in the Slieve Bloom Mountains.Glenbarrow is easily accessed.
From Clonaslee,turn right at Tinnahinch Bridge.After 3 miles you will turn right again,and it is only a mile to the car-park.The entire route is well signposted.

Glenbarrows major attraction is the Clamphole Waterfalls and there is a beautiful woodland walk from the car-park to the Waterfalls.Yet there is so much more to this great glen.
In recent years two wooden bridges have been built across the Barrow river,creating a second interesting walk. This new walk is on the Clonaslee side of the Barrow River,meandering at the rivers edge under a canopy of decidous trees with the cliffs at your side.Both walks join up again just below the open ,stone floored shallows,flanked to the right with the high drift cliffs that date from the last ice age.
There is an open log cabin here,to provide shelter on the odd rainy day.The sandstone here was quarried in the past and the dynamite bore holes can still be found.The flat stones are an ideal place to stop and picnic on,but please take your litter home when you leave this natural beauty spot.
Just a short walk upsteam are the Waterfalls, there are actually 3 falls,the bottom one is the highest and most photographed,although recently floods have carried entire trees to this spot.There is a little wood picnic table here, where you can pause and listen to the rush of the water.
Most people turn here and head back to the car-park, but if you’re a little more adventurous and are wearing good hiking boots, then follow the river up the Glen.
There is a well worn track you can easily follow, and you leave the conifers behind into open moor-land with the river beside you in its wooded glen.A mile from the Clamphole is a wooden bridge that will lead on into the vastness of Knockanastumba Mountain and its forest of conifers.
If you pass that bridge,the little mountain track will take you up to the Ridge of Capard.From here you can loop back down to the Glenbarrow Car-park,following a good wide,well-gravelled Forestry road.


In July 2006 Bord Failte and Coillte launched 20 Looped Walks all over Ireland.
The Slieve Blooms are represented with a great looped walk at Glenbarrow.

Capard Loop

At a glance - Capard Loop
Ascent 160m
Distance 10km
Estimated Time 3hrs – 4hrs
Grade moderate
Start and Finish Glenbarrow car park.

Terrain riverside paths, bog tracks and woodland trails

Steeped in history and folklore, the Slieve Blooms dominate the landscape as it straddles the border of counties Offaly and Laois. Its highest peak, 529m Arderin, translates from Irish as the height of Ireland. Connections with the past are everywhere as the area is littered with monuments dating back as far as 4,500 years.

Proud of its mythological heritage, too, it’s said the Irish Giant Finn MacCool grew up here, and the mountains themselves are named in honour of Bladh, a warrior chief and hero of the province Connaught, who was slain in the mountains around 3000BC.

There are plenty of fabulous walks around the Slieve Blooms, not least the Slieve Bloom Walking Festival, which takes place at the end of April every year. But shorter trails are commonplace, concentrating on the deep wooded glens that cut down from the mountain plateau. The Capard Loop is one of the best and combines a beautiful wooded valley with lofty ridge views for all to enjoy.

Route summary
Set off from the Glenbarrow Car Park and trace your way along the banks of the River Barrow, skipping over footbridges to explore both sides of the river.
Numerous waterfalls tumble over the red sandstone rock beside the trail, but the most impressive of these has to be the triple-tiered Clamphole Falls, which cascade brilliantly alongside their woodland setting.

Beyond the falls, follow the mountain track up onto the Ridge of Capard, which stands at 350m high. Take time to look around and you’ll be rewarded with splendid panoramic views. To the southeast, check out the striking profile of the Wicklow Mountains.
Your gradual descent takes you along clearly signposted bog roads, woodland paths and forestry tracks until you reach Glenbarrow Car Park once more.
For more information on the looped walks of Ireland check out www.walking.ireland.ie.

GLENLAHAN
The wide glen as Gaelige.
The upper reaches of Glenlahan are all forested now, but midway down it is open moorland.A vast nature reserve and it should be treated as such.There are 3 Waterfalls on this stretch of the Glenlahan River,but are almost inaccessible.
Glenlahan and surrounding hills were once home to major stone quarrying.

GLENDINEOREGAN
The Deep Glen of Ui Riagain.
If you drive from Clonaslee to the Cut, the deep glen on your right is Glendineoregan. It is almost fully planted with conifers and the brown head of Knockachorra looks down as the Gorragh River flows through the trees. There are numerous forestry roads that will take you deep into this great Glen,almost all run parallel with the river,following the contours of the valley.
The forest road that begins on the Cut Road,and that is signposted Glendineoregan,will take you south towards Wolftrap Mountain and then turns right,crosses the river at a little wooden bridge to bring you back down the other side to Upper Gorragh and eventually to Clonaslee. This is a long,maybe 4 hour walk and is the route taken most years for the annual St Stephens Day Hospice Walk.
There are spectacular views of Glendineoregan from the car-park just north of the Cut. It can be a bleak and windy spot at times, but what a view.
From this car-park you can walk in to the head of the valley, just above the tree line with the open moor and blanket bog on your left.This is one leg of the “Slieve Bloom Way” and it too will take you under the nose of Knockachorra over to Glenkeen and its river Clodiagh.
Just a half mile past where you cross the little Gorragh stream, you can acess a downhill path on your right that will bring you to the Glendineoregan Waterfalls. Much taller than the Clamphole and well worth investigating.

GLENKEEN
Glenkeen is just a few minutes drive from Clonaslee. There are 2 public roads, one begins at Peavoys the other is the Brittas road,both are cul-de-sacs, although you can link from one to the other at the lower reaches of Glenkeen. This loop is a very pleasant walk past fields,old hedgegrows,stone walls,ruined farmhouses and over the Clodiagh River.
The lower levels of Glenkeen are not covered in conifers but are farmed. Before the famine Glenkeen was heavily populated, not so these days and you will find a lot of old and not so old ruined houses here.
The head of the valley is forested now, but once like Glenlahan it had many stone quarrying operations. These days the open quarries are now buried within forests of conifers. The May family quarry was along the river Clodiagh, and a beautiful waterfalls occurs here [probably helped along by the quarrying].It is relatively inaccessible.
Knockacharra Mountain overlooks this large valley and there are many forestry roads that run along its northern slopes, some old tracks will take you up to the mountain bog where turf was saved. Brennans Rocks is a spot up here marked by an outcropping of sandstone. One of the many forest roads begins near a roadsign for Glenkeen, this road will take you up the valley and crosses the Clodiagh high up the side of Barradoos Mountain, before it turns right and heads north and down onto the Birr Road.

GLEN OF THE COUNTY RIVER
Glassheenahorna is the ancient Gaelic name for this small tributary of the Silver River.
The little river cuts a deep gorge just south of the Clonaslee to Birr road.

GLEN OF THE SILVER RIVER
The Silver River rises in Glenletter,with an important tribituary rising in Barlahan,but it is the lower glen of the river that we deal with here.The pretty village of Cadamstown lies at the edge of this glen. In fact it is more of a Gorge,with the river slicing its way through huge chunks of rock,creating swirling contours in these boulders and tall unsteady looking sandstone cliffs. This Gorge is unique to the Slieve Blooms and is truly well worth visiting.
Accessibility is easy,there is a large car park at Dempseys pub,and the Silver River Geoligical Trail is well signposted.Up a short lane into a field and then turn right into the depths of this Gorge.Not far in is an Information Board,and just upstream is a wooden bridge over the Gorge. A little upstream from this are towering sandstone cliffs,with a giant oak tree hanging on for dear life.The river trail is wonderfull,hazel,alders and oaks and the tall slender birch, with bluebells underfoot in May.
If you follow the trail south,with the river beside you,it becomes an up and down affair until you reach the Weir Waterfall and enter a broad valley of glacial drift.This is a very different area,its bright,its open,its farmed.The flora changes too.
You can ford the river here and follow the tractor trail as it loops south before turning for north and back to Cadamstown.

GLEN OF BARLAHAN
This most secret of glens,hidden under the nose of Spink is a jewel.If you can find it you will know what I mean and you will want to keep it all to yourself.The lower end of Barlahan is farmed, the sheep graze here peacefully amongst the broken ruins of old farmhouses.The upper reaches are open moorland, the blanket bog, with the little streams that feed the Siver River gurgling through it.
Barlahan is magical and un-spoilt,there are no forestry roads that will bring you here,and so it should stay.

GLENLETTER
This huge sprawling Glen lies on your left, if you drive from Lackaroe to Mountrath.It is wide and open, a great big blue sky of a glen. It is relatively unforested and that in itself just adds to its immensity.If you catch Glenletter in the Summer, with the white heads of the bog cotton bobbing in the breeze,millions of them,it is like a great prairie of the Slieve Bloom Mountains.