Hook Head and the Barrow estuary

On the broad neck of the Hook Head peninsula, 30km southwest of Wexford town off the R374, lies the dramatic ruin of Tintern Abbey, now surrounded by 3km of woodland trails and endowed with a café. This thirteenth-century Cistercian foundation was constructed by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, to give thanks for being saved from drowning at sea, and was populated by monks from its better-known namesake in Monmouthshire, Wales. After dissolution in 1536, the abbey was granted to one of Henry VIII’s officers, Anthony Colclough, who much modified the buildings, while subsequent additions, including the battlemented walls, were made by his descendants, who lived here until the 1960s. Only part of the original cruciform church is still standing but its tower is extant and includes a small exhibition on the abbey’s history.

Hook Head is entirely exposed to the elements, serene in good weather – though very dangerous for swimming – and excitingly wild in a storm. The rocky shoreline has a wealth of fossils and it’s a popular location for birdwatchers, who visit to spot migrations, as well as whale- and dolphin-watchers. The Hook Lighthouse was built by William Marshall in the early thirteenth century to guide ships safely into the Barrow estuary on their way to his thriving port of New Ross, replacing an earlier beacon. Apart from a short period during the 1600s, it has functioned ever since and became fully automated in 1996. Guided tours lead to the lighthouse’s top, some 36 metres high, and recount its history, paying note to the monks who were the first light-keepers here.

DUNCANNON is a small, friendly village with a lovely Blue Flag beach protected from the elements by a rocky coastline at its southern extremity. Looming above from its lofty promontory is Duncannon Fort, constructed in 1586, on the site of a Celtic fort and a Norman castle, as a bulwark against Spanish invasion. Much remodelled since then, the fort was burnt down by the IRA in 1922. Though Ireland was officially neutral during World War II, the fort was rebuilt on its outbreak, becoming a base for the Irish Army until 1986. As well as art and crafts galleries and studios, a café and an internet café, the complex includes a small maritime museum, a dry moat with ten-metre-high walls, ramparts with great views of the Barrow estuary and down to Hook Head and, in a surviving older building, a fetid dungeon where the Croppy Boy, the subject of a well-known song of the 1798 Rebellion, was allegedly incarcerated.

NEW ROSS squats besides the River Barrow, 12km north of the arboretum, its quayside marred by poor redevelopment and heavy traffic, but there’s still life in the old place, especially in the lanes behind the frontage. The river provided access to the upstream countryside of Wexford and Kilkenny, and the town’s importance beyond being a local embarkation point is emphasized by the quayside presence of the Dunbrody Emigrant Ship. Though this is a reconstruction of one of the nineteenth-century vessels that conveyed Irish emigrants to North America, particularly during the height of the Famine, it is actually a fully operable craft and occasionally takes part in tall ship races. Following a brief scene-setting video, the half-hour guided tour of the ship, complete with costumed actors role-playing passengers and crew, shows the conditions on board, stressing the variance between those who travelled steerage and first class. In the visitor centre, which houses a café, you can access a database of virtually everyone who emigrated to North America between 1846 and 1886.

The town’s tourist office is housed in the ship’s visitor centre. Ask here about the Ros Tapestry (www.rostapestry.com), an ambitious, ten-year project to embroider the history of New Ross in fifteen colourful panels – it’s nearing completion and will probably be hung in St Mary’s Church on Mary Street.