One of the larger watercourses by volume in County Dublin, the Broadmeadow is a salmonid river, with several species of fish, including brown trout.

Earlier it is sometimes documented as the Gower or Gowre Water, derived from its Irish name, Abhainn Ghabhra.

[6] Various small tributaries join in County Dublin, and the river flows north of Swords, and passes under Lissenhall and another historic bridge, and then the M1 motorway.

[6] The river enters its wide estuary by a main, northern, channel, and a narrower southern distributary, as the M1 motorway passes by overhead.

[6] The waters then flow in a narrow gap between two railway embankments, under the Broadmeadow viaduct, into the outer, near-fully tidal, estuary.

[6] There is limited fishing for brown trout on the Broadmeadow, on agricultural lands, generally near road bridges.