Jun 14, 2026 · 47 min · 9 segments
Poet Jane Clarke explores the Avonmore River in County Wicklow through poetry and conversation.
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Jane ClarkHost
Faith WilsonGuest
Chris CorlettGuest
Hugh McLindenGuest
Richard NairnGuest
Jean CostelloGuest
It's just risen in the bog up near the Sally Gap, not too far from where we are here.
It trickles out of the bog first, and the bog acts like a big sponge, and it releases the water slowly, and then it, it heads fast downhill over waterfalls and rocks and boulders, and eventually into the lakes and the valleys.
And would you say the river is in a good state here? Is it quite healthy here? And I mean, I notice that the water is very brown and, you know, why is that?
It, it's also very acid in nature, which is again, natural, because peat is itself very acid.
So, um, that would be normal for a mountain lake, and because it's so acid, it doesn't have a huge amount of insect life, for instance.
It's only in the lower stages that it becomes much more productive and has a much wider range of fish and so on.
Well, in the river itself, you will find, if you lift stones and so on, you'll find small insect larvae like caddisflies and that type of thing.
But in terms of the bigger wildlife, the river birds are probably the most interesting and obvious.
Birds like the dipper, for instance, which is very much associated with fast-flowing rivers like this one.
We've, uh, we've seen the dipper here just at this point before, and it is a, it's r- really a remarkable little bird.
It's just risen in the bog up near the Sally Gap, not too far from where we are here.
It trickles out of the bog first, and the bog acts like a big sponge, and it releases the water slowly, and then it, it heads fast downhill over waterfalls and rocks and boulders, and eventually into the lakes and the valleys.
And would you say the river is in a good state here? Is it quite healthy here? And I mean, I notice that the water is very brown and, you know, why is that?
It, it's also very acid in nature, which is again, natural, because peat is itself very acid.
So, um, that would be normal for a mountain lake, and because it's so acid, it doesn't have a huge amount of insect life, for instance.
It's only in the lower stages that it becomes much more productive and has a much wider range of fish and so on.
Well, in the river itself, you will find, if you lift stones and so on, you'll find small insect larvae like caddisflies and that type of thing.
But in terms of the bigger wildlife, the river birds are probably the most interesting and obvious.
Birds like the dipper, for instance, which is very much associated with fast-flowing rivers like this one.
We've, uh, we've seen the dipper here just at this point before, and it is a, it's r- really a remarkable little bird.
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