Best Historic Places in County Wexford, Ireland - Map and Reviews

Loftus Hall is set in a bleak and open site on the Hook Peninsula overlooking Waterford harbor and Dunmore East, 12 miles from Waterford. Loftus Hall is a huge rectangular nine bay mansion house built over 3 floors. It is set on a site of 63 acres of arable land with its own private beach. The Hall is in good repair and consists of 22 bedrooms and 7 reception rooms. One of the outstanding features of the mansion is the hand-carved oak staircase. The original hall was built during the period of the 'Black Death' in 1350 by the Redmond family. During Cromwell's invasion it was confiscated from the family and handed over to the Loftus family in the 1650's who had to repair the hall from the considerable damage caused by cannon fire. The head of the family had many titles but in the 1800's was created Marquess of Ely. In 1870 the hall was demolished by the 4th Earl and the present hall was built on its foundations. The only remaining parts of the old hall that were left were the foundations of a circular tower and an underground passage. The new hall was very up market for its time including a handmade Italian staircase, gas lighting and central heating. In 1917 the hall was sold to the Holy Order of the Sisters of Providence. They converted the hall into a school and convent for young girls and it remained in their care until 1983. This time it was converted into a hotel by Michael Devereaux but in the late 1990's it was forced to close. The hall remained in the Devereaux family until 2008. It is currently owned by the Quigley family. The hall is a tourist attraction with guided tours of the property and vartious events are hosted there. The Arts A film 'The Legend of Loftus Hall was released in 1993 and another with title 'Loftus Hall' was released in 2014. Legends It is believed that in 1762 a man visited the house from a ship docked on the Hook Peninsula. Anne Loftus invited him into the house and noticed he had a cloven foot, she screamed and the man went up through the roof in a puff of smoke leaving a large hole which could never be properly repaired.

The Irish National Heritage Park is an open-air living history museum situated on a sprawling 35-acre site near Ferrycarrig in County Wexford, offering visitors an immersive journey through approximately 9,000 years of Irish history and prehistory. It stands as one of Ireland's most ambitious and accessible heritage attractions, reconstructing life from the Mesolithic period right through to the era of Norman settlement. The park translates what might otherwise be dry archaeological record into tangible, walkable environments, placing visitors inside replica dwelling structures, beside working crafts demonstrations, and amid landscaped woodland that evokes the character of ancient Ireland. It is especially well regarded for its family-friendly approach, managing the rare feat of being genuinely educational without ever feeling static or museum-like in the conventional sense. The park was developed in the 1980s and formally opened in 1987, the culmination of a vision to create a permanent outdoor showcase for Irish heritage on a scale that had few precedents in the country at the time. County Wexford was a natural setting for such a project, given its extraordinary density of archaeological and historical sites — the county contains everything from Neolithic passage tombs to Viking longphorts to Norman castles. The site at Ferrycarrig itself is deeply layered with history: immediately adjacent to the park stands Ferrycarrig Castle, a tower house ruin perched dramatically above the River Slaney, and the area around the estuary has been a point of strategic and cultural importance since the earliest human activity in the southeast of Ireland. Walking through the park is a carefully sequenced experience, moving roughly chronologically through reconstructed habitats. Early sections evoke the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer world, with simple shelters among trees near water, while subsequent zones present a Neolithic farmstead, Bronze Age stone circles, Celtic ring forts, an early Christian monastery complete with beehive huts and a round tower replica, a Viking longhouse and boatyard, and finally a Norman motte and bailey fortification. The structures are built using period-appropriate materials and techniques wherever possible — timber, wattle and daub, thatch, and stone — and the overall effect as you move between them is of genuine time travel, particularly when morning mist hangs low over the wetland sections near the river. The sensory experience of the park is distinctive. Birdsong is pervasive, since the woodland and wetland habitats attract a wide variety of species. The smell of woodsmoke sometimes drifts from demonstration fires within reconstructed hearths. The path surfaces change from compacted earth to timber boardwalks as the trail passes through boggy or marshy ground near the river margin. The combination of mature broadleaf trees, open grassland clearings, and managed wetland creates a landscape that reads as genuinely ancient even though it has been deliberately shaped for the visitor experience. In wet weather the ground can become soft and atmospheric; in summer the canopy is thick and the whole site feels enclosed and slightly otherworldly. The surrounding area rewards exploration well beyond the park boundary. The River Slaney estuary is immediately visible and audible from much of the site, and the tidal mudflats and reedbeds form a nature reserve of considerable importance for wading birds and wildfowl. Wexford town itself is only about three kilometres to the south and contains the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve, Johnstown Castle, the remains of Viking-era street plans, and a lively quayside. The N11 and N25 roads connect the area efficiently northward toward Dublin and westward toward Waterford. Wexford town has a railway station with regular services to Dublin Heuston, and bus services connect the broader area, though the park is most easily reached by car given its position just off the N11. For practical visiting purposes, the park is open seasonally, with its main visiting season running from spring through to autumn. Peak activity in terms of living history demonstrations and costumed interpretation tends to be concentrated in the summer months, and booking ahead is advisable for busy weekends. The site is largely accessible on foot along its network of paths, though some sections near the wetlands can be challenging for wheelchair users or those with mobility difficulties depending on conditions. There is a visitor centre at the entrance with exhibition space, a café, and a gift shop, and the park operates an on-site car park free of charge with admission. The combination of outdoor exploration and indoor interpretive material means it works well even in imperfect weather. One of the most compelling and lesser-known aspects of the park is its role not just as a visitor attraction but as a working resource for experimental archaeology. The process of actually constructing the replica buildings — determining which techniques work, which materials prove durable, where ancient descriptions or artistic sources prove inaccurate — has generated genuine research insights over the decades. The Viking longhouse in particular has been revised and refined over time as understanding of Norse building traditions in Ireland deepened. The park also holds an unusual place in the landscape of Irish cultural identity, having opened during a period when the country was investing heavily in the idea of heritage tourism as both economic strategy and national self-expression — making it itself, in a quiet way, an artefact of the Ireland of the late twentieth century as much as the Ireland of the Mesolithic.

Vinegar Hill, rising modestly above the town of Enniscorthy in County Wexford, is one of the most historically charged sites in all of Ireland. The windmill tower that crowns its summit stands as a stark, roofless stone sentinel overlooking the surrounding countryside, and it is inseparable from the tragic and heroic events of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. The hill and its ruined mill are deeply embedded in Irish national memory, representing both the fierce aspirations and the devastating defeat of the United Irishmen who made their last stand here. For anyone interested in Irish history, landscape, or the quiet weight that certain places carry, Vinegar Hill is a genuinely moving and rewarding destination. The windmill tower itself dates to the eighteenth century, though its exact construction date is uncertain. It is a circular rubble-stone structure, roofless and open to the sky, typical of the tower mills once common across Wexford and the broader region. By the time of the 1798 rebellion it was already a prominent local landmark, and the United Irishmen used it as a command post and signal point during their occupation of the hill. The summit served as the rebel headquarters through much of May and June 1798, a period during which tens of thousands of insurgents camped on and around the hill. The British Crown forces, under General Lake, launched their decisive assault on 21 June 1798, bombarding the position with artillery and forcing the rebels to break out rather than be encircled. While many escaped, it effectively ended organised resistance in County Wexford. The mill tower thus witnessed one of the most consequential engagements in Irish history, and the memory has never truly faded from local consciousness. In person, the tower presents itself as a weathered, almost severe stone cylinder, its mortar joints worn and its interior exposed to the elements. Grasses and wildflowers grow around its base, and the lack of a roof means that standing within it you look directly up at the open sky. The stonework has the honest, irregular character of vernacular Irish building, and the surfaces are mottled with lichen in shades of grey and pale orange. The surrounding hilltop is open and breezy, and on most days you can hear the wind moving across the summit, along with birdsong and the faint sounds of the town below. It is a place of considerable stillness, which makes the imagination of it crowded with thousands of rebel soldiers all the more vivid by contrast. The view from Vinegar Hill is panoramic and remarkable. The River Slaney sweeps in a broad arc through Enniscorthy immediately below, with the town's medieval castle and cathedral clearly visible, as well as the bridge and the older streets of the town. To the south and west, the rolling farmland of County Wexford spreads away toward the Blackstairs Mountains, while to the east the land opens toward the coast. The summit offers one of the finest vantage points in the county, which was precisely why it held such strategic value in 1798. The hill itself is not large — it rises to roughly 60 metres above the surrounding terrain — but its prominence in the local landscape is unmistakable. Enniscorthy itself, the town at the foot of the hill, adds considerably to the value of a visit. The National 1798 Rebellion Centre is located in the town and provides excellent contextual exhibits on the rebellion, the United Irishmen, and the events played out on Vinegar Hill. Enniscorthy Castle, a well-preserved Norman tower house, is also open to visitors and houses the Wexford County Museum. The town has a pleasant market character with independent shops, cafés, and pubs, and it is easy to combine a visit to the hill with a few hours in Enniscorthy itself. Access to Vinegar Hill is straightforward and free of charge. The hill is reached via a local road and a short footpath from Enniscorthy town, and the climb to the summit is gentle enough to be manageable for most visitors, though the path can be uneven and muddy in wet weather. There is limited parking near the base. The site has no formal visitor infrastructure at the summit — no café, no ticket office, no interpretive panels beyond a modest marker — and this unmediated quality is actually part of its appeal. You arrive at the old mill tower on your own terms, with the wind and the view and the history for company. It is accessible year-round, and while summer offers the best walking conditions, the hill on a clear winter's day, with the town quiet and the countryside sharp under low light, has its own austere beauty. A curious additional layer to the site's story is its cultural afterlife. The song "The Boys of Wexford," one of the most enduring ballads of the Irish patriotic tradition, references the events of 1798 and is associated with Vinegar Hill. The hill's name itself, while now laden with historical association, is thought to predate the rebellion, possibly derived from a corruption of an older Irish place name, though the origins are debated locally. The windmill, long stripped of its sails and working machinery, endures as a kind of accidental monument — a functional agricultural building transformed by the force of historical events into an icon of Irish resistance. It is, in the most literal sense, a ruin that means far more than it looks.