River Avoca

River Avoca
Abhainn Abhóca
Avonmore left; Avonbeg right; Avoca ahead at the Meeting of the Waters.
Etymology From the Oboka, which appears in Ptolemy's Geography
Physical characteristics
Main source The Meeting of the Waters, County Wicklow.
River mouth Irish Sea at Arklow
Discharge
  • Average rate:
    18 m3/s (640 cu ft/s)
Basin features
Tributaries
The view in Moore's time.
Thomas Moore at the Meeting of the Waters.

The Avoca (Irish: Abhainn Abhóca) is a river in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is contained completely within the county. Its length is 35 miles (56.3 km).[1]

The Avoca starts 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, which is considered a local beauty spot, and was celebrated by Thomas Moore in his song of the same name.

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 catchment area of the Avoca is 652 km2.[2] The long term average flow rate of the Avoca is 20.2 cubic metres per second (m3/s)[2]

Name

The Avoca was originally called Abhainn Mhór / Abhainn Dé (great river/God's river); the present name was derived from Oboka (Greek: Οβοκα),[3] the name of a river in Ptolemy's Geography, which was thought to correspond to the Avoca (Ovoca). Oboka more likely refers to the Liffey.[4]

Industry

The valley of the Avoca has a large copper mine, and further downstream was the NET fertilizer factory (closed since 2002). These are said to have contributed greatly to pollution in the lower reaches of the river.

Transport

The railway line from Dublin to Rosslare also passes along the Vale of Avoca, cutting inland from its mainly coastal route and the R752 road tightly follows the west bank of the Avoca from The Meetings to Arklow.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Fishing in Ireland. An angler's guide to the best fishing in Ireland". fishinginireland.info.
  2. 1 2 "South Eastern River Basin District Management System Initial Characterisation Report: Physical Description" (PDF). South Eastern River Basin District. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2015-03-02.
  3. ↑ "Ireland" (PDF). Roman Era Names. 1 June 2018. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  4. ↑ "Abhóca/Avoca". Logainm.ie. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
  • Wikisource Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Avoca, Vale of". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 66.

Coordinates: 52°52′59″N 6°13′47″W / 52.88306°N 6.22972°W / 52.88306; -6.22972

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