A short stretch of mountain road beside Mahon Falls where you take your foot off the brake and the car rolls backwards up the hill. It's an optical illusion — and a very convincing one.
Stop safely at the marked spot, switch off the engine and take your foot off the brake. The car appears to roll backwards up the hill behind you. It is an optical illusion: the road is actually sloping downhill but looks convincingly uphill.
From the car park at the top of the road a gravel path leads about 20 minutes to the 80-metre Mahon waterfall, cascading into the River Mahon. It is an easy, family-friendly ramble of roughly an hour return.
The Magic Road sits on the signposted Comeragh Drive, a scenic loop over the mountains past St Bridget's Well, the Nire Valley and high viewing points with wide panoramas over the countryside below.
There is nowhere to eat on the road itself. Dungarvan, a 20-minute drive away, has plenty of restaurants and pubs for a post-adventure feed.
Two stones inscribed 'Magic Road' mark the spot, a few yards from a fairy tree hung with rags and trinkets. Local folklore blames the fairies for the effect; the geometry of the hill is the likelier culprit.
Nearby Coumshingaun is one of Ireland's most outstanding sights, a mountain lake reached on a demanding trail for experienced hikers; the full loop is very dangerous in places.
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