River Mahon ( ga, an Mhachain) flows from the Comeragh Mountains in

County Waterford County Waterford ( ga, Contae Phort Láirge) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Waterford. Waterford City and County Council is the local authority for t ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

Course

Falling down the 80-metre Mahon Falls and proceeding past a hawthorn "Fairy Tree", identified by ribbons tied to its branches (the tree was chopped down and replanted), the river then passes through the village of Mahon Bridge and on past Flahavan's Mill and under the 8-arched rail bridge in

Kilmacthomas Kilmacthomas or Kilmactomas (), often referred to locally as "Kilmac", is a town on the River Mahon in County Waterford, Ireland. It lies on the R677, a road north of the N25 national primary road from Dungarvan to Waterford. History During ...

. The river is joined by the ''Ách Mór'' tributary river at Ballylaneen and ends its journey three miles further downstream at

Bunmahon Bunmahon (), also called Bonmahon, is a coastal village in County Waterford, Ireland, at the mouth of the River Mahon. During the 19th century, when copper mines operated in the area, Bonmahon was a mining village. As of the 21st century, the ...

on Ireland's south coast. It drains into the region of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

known as the

Celtic Sea The Celtic Sea ; cy, Y Môr Celtaidd ; kw, An Mor Keltek ; br, Ar Mor Keltiek ; french: La mer Celtique is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits includ ...

Former mills

In former times, the river powered five different mills, one at Mahon Bridge, three at Kilmacthomas and one at Ballylaneen.

Sport

The river is popular with whitewater kayakers. There has been no known source-to-sea descent to date but the river has been paddled from Mahon Bridge to the sea at Bonmahon by an international team of B1 and B2 kayakers in August 2012. On 21 October 2005, Michael Reynolds, a kayaker from Tramore, County Waterford, performed the only known descent in a kayak of the vertical 55 foot drop at the top of Mahon falls. Bonmahon Beach

References

{{Rivers of Ireland Mahon Waterfalls of the Republic of Ireland