River Avoca

The Avoca (Irish: Abhainn Abhóca; historically Abhainn Mhór / Abhainn Dé) is a river in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is contained completely within the county. Its length is 35 miles (56.3 km). 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. The long term average flow rate of the Avoca is 20.2 Cubic Metres per second (m³/s)

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.