Brief River Description

The steepest complete section of river in Donegal and possibly further (I'll let commenter's add their view on this), it works out at 900ft per mile, the map showing a 60m drop over its 300m distance.

Expect it to be steep and fast, just watch out for shallow landings etc, it is a creek after all.

Directions to the Put-in

At the top of Lough Eske there is a road that takes walkers up to a car park that leads to the track that follows the Corabber River and onwards to Lough Belshade.

Along the road as it dips into a hollow it crosses a stone bridge (at Grid Ref:970.867), look up and over this to view the start and the descent downwards. Walk down on river left to view the slabs and falls. You will be struck with happiness and excitement at what now lies before you.

Directions to the Take-out

Take out at the bottom of the hill where the creek levels out in among the rodhadendrons and brambles. You can walk back up to get the car and drive around to the bottom(Grid Ref:973.856) to pick up the boats.

A road crosses he start and end of the creek.

River Description

Walk up from the stone bridge on river left to where the gradient is flat, get on and start the descent. The minor drops are all similar in style and description and are too numerous to mention so I will stick to the 4 main drops in this description and their hazards.

After you descent through the bridge there is the first slab that leads you out from among some trees to the open hillside, a straight forward slide that trends to river left and has minor kickers that's give you enough lift to avoid the narrow bottle neck at the bottom which sends you river right into the pool.

The next slab is faster, not as flat and has a tiny pool about a quarter of the way down, again straight forward as you won't have time to do much else. Again a pool at the bottom.

The next drop is a ledge drop, a small drop leads to a larger 4m drop which requires some courage and the boat to be kept straight and on river rightish. The ledge half way down keeps your bow up enough to avoid pencilling and not flat enough to hurt your back in the shallow pool at the bottom. A slide leads you on to the pool for a breath.

The next constriction or right angled pinball style rapid is in among the trees, a hard left turn among broken rock, straight into a 'V' groove which has pinned boats, leads to a hard right turn into a tight pool, may require some pushing as the water isn't as useful among the rocks as the previous rapids.

Take out on river left at the field through some brambles and exit via gate.

Local issues

No issues so far, though it has only been ran once to my knowledge.

River level gauge

Look up into the mountains above and if the large waterfall is very white then there is enough to run it, but have a look as it does drop and rise fast.

River Hazards

As described in the river description. Take a pin kit just incase.

Author(s)