The Liffey is a river that spans 80 kilometres in length (50 miles). It rises in the Wicklow Mountains, in northern Wicklow, at a height of about 518 metres (1,700 feet) above sea level. From here it flows in a generally northeasterly direction before entering the Pollaphuca reservoir, which supplies water to Dublin about 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the north.
The Liffey then flows into Kildare before turning east into Dublin. It discharges into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea. The stretch of the Liffey that flows through Dublin is extensively canalized and is crossed by the Grand Canal, which links Dublin to the Shannon.
The Liffey is only navigable as far as the first of Dublin's ten bridges.
During the period 800, before people influenced the shape of the River Liffey, the water level of the Liffey rose and fell with the tide to the same level as it does today. The Liffey boasts numerious number of bridges most notably Ha' penny bridge which was so called because people had to pay a penny in order to cross it.
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