Avoca River
The Avoca River
The Avoca River enters the Irish Sea at Arklow and drains most of the eastern Wicklow Mountains. The Avoca and its tributaries can be thought of as a river system that has only one exit to the sea and drains a defined area of land known as its catchment or watershed.
The Avoca (Irish: Abhainn Abhóca) flows 56.3 km and begins life as two rivers, the Avonmore (Irish: Abhainn Mhór, meaning “Big River”) and the Avonbeg (Irish: Abhainn Bheag, meaning “Small River”). These join together at a spot called the Meeting of the Waters (Cumar an dá Uisce) in the Vale of Avoca. The village of Avoca is situated on the river.
The Avoca flows into the Irish Sea at Arklow where it widens into a large estuary, giving Arklow its Irish language name an t-Inbhear Mór (the big inlet).
The area of the Avoca catchment is 670 sq km. The long term average flow rate of the Avoca is 20.2 cubic metres per second (m3/s).
The Avoca River undoubtedly has suffered a bad press over the years, often being labelled as ‘the most polluted river in Ireland’ because of the impact of Avoca mines. However, it needs to be stressed that the pollution is confined to a relatively small section of the Avoca system, and there are many hundreds of kilometres of excellent river habitat that make up the catchment. Moreover, there are hopeful signs that water quality is improving in the Avoca River and there is a plan in place to restore the river to good ecological status, if the will and resources can be found to implement it fully.