The main gateway into Glenbarrow Woods in the Slieve Bloom Mountains, where the River Barrow spills over the three-tiered Clamp Hole waterfall. It is the trailhead for four way-marked loops, with free parking and a riverside picnic site.
The signature walk: a 4.5–7 km blue-waymarked loop following the west bank of the River Barrow to the three-tiered Clamp Hole waterfall, the most photographed natural feature in County Laois. Steep stone steps with a wooden handrail drop to the base of the falls, and they get very slippery when wet.
The shortest option: a gentle 3 km loop of about an hour to the flat rock outcrop by the river. Coillte notes the first trail is buggy-friendly as far as the area known as Flat Rock.
A strenuous 10.5–12 km circuit of 2.5–3.5 hours that carries on past the waterfall to the ruins of an old water mill, then climbs to the Ridge of Capard before returning through Capard Wood.
A 10-stop educational loop of 8.5–10 km (about 3 hours, strenuous) through the old quarries, past a 19th-century farmstead ruin and onto the Ridge of Capard bog bridge, with geology and wildlife notes at each stop.
Every loop shares a stretch with the Slieve Bloom Way (yellow arrows), and the Eco and Old Mill walks climb onto the heather-clad Ridge of Capard for wide views over Laois and Offaly.
Coillte lists a picnic site among the on-site facilities, and the open flat-stone valley floor by the river is the obvious place to stop. Note there are no toilets at the car park.
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