Wexford - 49 Attractions You Must Visit

Forth Mountain is a rock outcrop rising to a height of 780 feet just south west of Wexford town. No other mountain in Ireland can boast of 500-600 million-year-old rock, a pivotal location in the 1798 Rebellion, the remains of houses built in the early 1900s, a grotto, and a climb of almost 235m high.

The Great Saltee Island is an island that belongs to the Saltee Islands archipelago. Located 5 kilometres off the south coast of County Wexford. It is the largest island in the archipelago, and is considered a true wonder of the region. The islands are a breeding ground for fulmar, gannet, shag, kittiwake, guillemot, razorbill, puffin and grey seal. An area surrounding the island was granted the status of a Special Protection Area to protect the bird habitat.

The Hook Lighthouse is a building situated on Hook Head at the tip of the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford, in Ireland. It is one of the oldest lighthouses in the world and the second oldest operating lighthouse in the world, after the Tower of Hercules in Spain. It is operated by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, the Irish Lighthouse Authority, it marks the eastern entrance to Waterford Harbour. The current structure has stood for 848 years as of 2020.

The Hook Peninsula is a peninsula in County Wexford, Ireland. It has been a gateway to south-east Ireland for successive waves of newcomers, including the Vikings, Anglo-Normans and the English. The coastline offers a beach a day for a fortnight and is one of the special attractions of this area.

The Irish National Heritage Park is an open-air museum near Wexford which tells the story of human settlement in Ireland from the Mesolithic period right up to the Norman Invasion in 1169. It has 16 reconstructed dwellings including a mesolithic camp, a neolithic farmstead, a portal dolmen, a cyst grave, stone circle, medieval ringfort, monastic site, crannóg and a Viking harbour.

The John F. Kennedy Arboretum on the Hook Head Peninsula at New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland, is a park under public administration. It covers a massive 252 hectares on the summit and southern slopes of Slieve Coillte and contains 4,500 types of trees and shrubs from all temperate regions of the world. There are 200 forest plots grouped by continent.

A majestic gothic castle located in County Wexford, Ireland covering 150 acre. It has 4 storeys. Interior goods include the "Apostles' Hall", with wood carvings of saints, as well as oil paintings, carved oak hall benches, mahogany billiard tables, dressing tables, upholstered sofas, fire grates and brass fenders. The former stable yard houses the Irish Agricultural Museum.

Lady's Island Lake is a brackish lake in the south of County Wexford, Ireland. It is technically a back-barrier seepage lagoon, one of only two in Ireland. The lake is an important breeding ground for terns. It is estimated that the lake is home to over 1,200 breeding pairs of Sandwich terns and, more importantly, to 150 breeding pairs of the rare roseate tern.

Morriscastle Beach is a part of a number of beaches that stretch for approximately 22 km from Cahore point to Curracloe in County Wexford and this sheltered stretch is known locally as the Golden Mile. The sand on Morriscastle is fine, deep and silvery with a deep sheltering dune system. It is possible to walk all the way to Curracloe to the south and to Cahore Point to the North.

The National Opera House is Ireland’s first custom-built, multi-purpose opera house and home to the world-famous Wexford Festival Opera. It consists of the 771 seat O'Reilly Theatre and the smaller Jerome Hynes Theatre, seating up to 176. It was designed and built by the architect Keith Williams Architects with the Office of Public Works.

It is one of the most popular beaches in the county with the strand being located next to Rosslare Village, at the southern end of Wexford Harbour. This Blue Flag beach is a ‘go-to’ destination for swimming, strolling and families of all ages. It also features both sand and stone and is divided into sections by a number of wooden breakwaters that are designed to prevent the beach from erosion.

Selskar Abbey is a 12th-century structure that replaced a pre-Christian temple dedicated to Odin. The complex, which is part of the Westgate Heritage Tower, was the location where the first Anglo-Irish treaty was signed. This ecclesiastical site would have overlooked the River Slaney at the time, as the land past Redmond Square was not reclaimed until later years.

A majestic tower house which was a wonderful example of the sheer building height that was made possible after the Normans introduced their expert stone construction techniques to the area.

Slieveboy is a mountain located in north County Wexford, Ireland. The mountain rises directly above the village of Ballyduff, midway between Carnew and Camolin. The mountain is, except for the area around the summit, completely covered in forest. There is a network of forest roads on the hill, and two communication masts on the summit.

A majestic cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ferns, which was located in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, in Ireland. The saint to whom the cathedral is dedicated is Máedóc of Ferns, also known as Áedan or Aidan, who died in 626, and not to be confused with St. Aidan of Lindisfarne , an Irish missionary who died in 651. Notable features include the façade, a reredos carved from Caen stone and a great north window with intricate stone tracery.

St Iberius church is found in the heart of Wexford Town. It was designed by Waterford's renowned architect John Roberts and features a late-Georgian style. The Anglican house of worship was built in the 18th century and features a late-Georgian style interior and 19th-century Venetian Renaissance exterior.

The windmill was built in 1846 by Nicolas Moran and was used until 1936, making it the last windmill in the Republic to work commercially. It was renovated in the 1950s. It is the oldest working windmill in Ireland. Access is managed via the nearby pub, "The Millhouse Bar". Now a National Monument, almost all the timber used in construction was driftwood or timber from shipwrecks locally.

Tacumshin Lake is a lake in Tacumshane, in the southeast of County Wexford, Ireland. It is designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA) under the EU Bird Directive and a Special Area of Conservation by the National Parks and Wildlife Services. It is a favourite with bird watchers. It attracts some rare American waders in Autumn, as well as internationally important concentrations of Bewick's swans, Brent geese, wigeon, oystercatchers, golden plover and lapwing.

Tara Hill is an isolated hill and associated village near the Irish Sea coast in north County Wexford, Ireland. Though only 253 metres high, it dominates the landscape of northeast Wexford. It provides extensive views of the Wexford coast line, from Courtown harbour to Castletown. It is situated at a particularly high point along the south east coast of Ireland and is surrounded by flat residential and agricultural land.

The Kennedy Homestead, birthplace of President John F. Kennedy’s great-grandfather Patrick Kennedy, celebrates the story of five generations of the Kennedy dynasty which is still farmed by his descendants. Visit our state of the art interpretative exhibit which explores the circumstances of Patrick Kennedy’s departure from Ireland in 1848 and pieces together the story of the most famous Irish-American family through the 20th century to the present day.