County Wexford

Introducing County Wexford

Invaders and privateers have always had a magnetic attraction to County Wexford, lured by its sexily navigable rivers and fertile land…oh baby. The Vikings founded Ireland’s first major towns on the wide, easy-flowing River Slaney, which cuts a swathe through the middle of the county. These days, the hordes descend on Wexford’s fine beaches to build more innocent sand castles.

Wexford town is pleasant enough but only retains a few traces of its Viking past. To feast on big dollops of history, visit Enniscorthy’s National 1798 Rebellion Centre and the site of the insurgents’ last stand, Vinegar Hill, or put yourself in the shoes of Famine emigrants by boarding the Dunbrody Heritage Ship at New Ross.

Wrecks litter the sea off the Hook Peninsula, which also has some fascinating history on land. Everyone from the Norman settlers to the Knights Templar passed through the flat, haunting promontory, which tapers towards one of the world’s oldest lighthouses. A great way to unwrap this landscape would be to cycle, pausing in pretty waterfront villages like Duncannon and Kilmore Quay to sample catches from the surrounding waves. The area is at the southwest end of the 221km Wexford Coastal Walk (Slí Charman), which starts at Kilmichael Point on the County Wicklow border.

Keep your ears open for remnants of a dialect called Yola, sometimes called ‘Forth and Bargy’, which still survives in southeastern County Wexford. Yola stands for ‘ye olde language’ and is a mixture of old French, English, Irish, Welsh and Flemish. Examples of the language are kyne (cow), hime (home), hachee (bad-tempered) and stouk (a truculent woman).

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009