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Lower Roughty, Co. Kerry, 2 - 3

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Peter O'Sullivan:
Here's the first of a few posts of suggested rivers for Kerry 2017/18.

The Lower Roughty, grade 2 - 3. Its great craic and only 15min up the road from Kenmare.
Get in on river right upstream of this bridge: https://www.google.ie/maps/@51.906322,-9.4155,3a,75y,241.81h,86.99t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJSVqUgFAWVe66f6CiAtF1A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Get out on river left upstream of this bridge: https://www.google.ie/maps/@51.8996365,-9.443598,3a,75y,48.27h,67.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_K4Ns__5i4RxJ3mttYGyiQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The run is about 2.4km long and runs no matter how high the water is. It will be 3+ to 4 in flood.
There is a more detailed description in the old guide book. Theo from Cork has a video with the level being on the high side of medium. https://youtu.be/-cLTwguq4nk?t=191

Can't ice-skate:
Nice river for a club trip at low levels, can tell it would be much higher (3-4) and would change a lot in flood.

Definitely a step up from the likes of Lower Caragh I would say, there's a good few rapids & drops, many should be scouted to check the line. The very first rapid at the get on under the bridge took a few by surprise and we had a few harmless swims. We portaged the second rapid, could have been a narrowish line down centre or left if I remember correctly, but wasn't very clean.

Our group used a disposable probe/guinea pig system when running it; Peter leading, Diarmuid & I rescue (as far as I remember). We would try out potential lines and signal back up if it was running or not, worked pretty well. Some rapids (one towards the end in particular that I can think of) didn't really have any clean lines in my opinion. We got down with no swims or anything, but an argument could have been made to run pretty much anywhere from right to left, but none of the lines were particularly nice (rock here, sharp turn there, narrow here, bit holey there etc). That said, this really wasn't a problem, we all got down absolutely fine, just thought I would mention it.

Rescue was easy enough, pretty much pool drop with bits of flat between features, not too continuous.

A few trees to watch out for here & there, but nothing too bad. One rapid near the start (pretty sure just after the one we portaged) flows directly into a fallen tree/branch as it rounds a corner, but really nothing significant, just paddle away lol.

Overall, lovely river to step it up ever so slightly for the club trips, but we only ran it in low side of medium I believe (middle Roughty was medium so I was told). Teaches a lot about read & run, scouting lines etc.

Obviously I don't remember every section & drop but that's all that I do. Anyone anything else to add? :)

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