2024 Foray #2 Rosslare to Kilmore Quay

Sunrise over Lady's Island lake

Last year my forays were limited to a one night layover, so this year I figured I should make better use of the tent JMB gave me, so herewith is an account of my first two night stint. The raison d'être for my route was partly to assuage my desire to walk the entire coast of Ireland, partly because of the lure of that cliff-top walk from Rosslare harbour and partly the peculiarity of Lady's Island lake q.v. 

The general area - bottom right of Ireland

My track - 35km. Click on the image to enlarge

The route

• 07:00 Bus 65 from the bottom of our road into Dublin
• Dublin Connelly station for 09:33 train to Rosslare Euro-port
• On arrival, a brief detour to Super Value for munitions
• Cliff walk south from Rosslare then along the beach to The Cut q.v. where I overnighted
• Next day following the coast to Kilmore Quay (KQ), thence to a suitable pitch in the dunes
• Next day back to KQ to catch the 07:35 bus to Wexford town
• Several hours chilling in Wexford before the 13:20 train to Wicklow town
• Bus 183 over Wicklow Gap stopping at the end of our road

En route

Connolly rail station

The Dublin Rosslare railway must count as one of Ireland's most scenic routes running alongside the coast from south Dublin to Wicklow town and thereafter hugging the Slaney estuary. The Deeps Bridge is a bascule bridge (i.e. it has a lifting section) crossing the estuary.

Deeps Bridge over the Slaney, through the train window

The food

Squashed sandwiches from home and 1.5 litre of water, supplemented by a chicken sandwich from said Super Value (not good) and six fruit scones which reappeared at intervals as a sort of "hard tack" and a litre of apple juice. That kept me going until KQ as there were no shops anywhere along my route. Everything had to be carried on my back. Then tea and pastries at KQ and, later on, fish and chips.  

Carnsore point

This is where the coast turns a corner. Those wind turbines are truly awesome up close. A few were out of commission as some sort of maintenance was being carried out. As I rounded the corner I got my first view of the Saltee islands.

First view of Saltee islands

Wind farm at Carnsore point

Lady's Island lake, beside which I enjoyed my first sleep-over, is legendary. The "island", now a peninsula, is the oldest Marian shrine in Ireland. Its known history predates the Christian era. I hadn't the energy or will to detour to explore it, so was satisfied with gazing over the lake and watching two wind-surfers enjoying the wind.

Our Lady gazing across the lake (copied with thanks from here)

Having consumed my customary fruit scone rations, next morning I set off at about 06:00 for KQ fighting a head-wind all the way. The shore here is mostly small pebble, but with some stretches of fine sand, beside sand dunes all the way. After leaving Lady's Island lake the next landmark was Tacumshin Lake. These inshore lakes are troublesome. They tend to fill up and overflow onto private land and that is why, every Spring, bulldozers arrive to excavate The Cut to let surplus water out. I would have thought it would seep through the loose gravel by itself in the course of a year but, apparently, no.

The Cut ready for next Spring

Tacumshin Lake is similarly affected but is better behaved because, in this case, an overflow tunnel has been built under the dunes to obviate the need for an explicit cut.

Tacumshin Lake and the Tunnel entrance

As one approaches KQ, human activity becomes more and more obvious: houses or private land making the coastal hiker's job more difficult so, now picking my way across larger boulders, I pass St Patrick's Bridge. This is neither a bridge nor was the worthy saint ever seen in these parts. This site says it is a natural glacial moraine of stone and gravel which forms a natural causeway that once connected Little Saltee with Kilmore Quay at low tide. It would have been fun to explore it but I had this urge to speed up and possibly catch the Wexford bus a day earlier than planned. In the event I missed the bus by about an hour but by then the thought of retracing my steps was simply past my ken. I was tired.

St Patrick's Bridge

And so to KQ, arriving at around 10:30am, I had the rest of the day to "chill", part exploring the dunes to find a suitable pitch, part reading, or part listening to Gunter Ward's interpretation of Bruckner's eight (I have a copy of his later symphonies on my cell phone for such a time as this), and finally back-tracking to KQ for my promised fish and chips, and the rest, as they say, is history.

When, the next day, I finally got to Wexford, I had several hours more spare time to wander aimlessly around the streets of Wexford town or read a book on my cell phone whilst waiting for the 13:20 train service to Wicklow town where I would catch the 183 bus over the Wicklow Gap and home again back to the end of our road.

Wexford town from Ferrybank

Here is a link to more photos from this trip.