Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [153]
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SALTEE ISLANDS
Once the haunt of privateers, smugglers and ‘dyvars pyrates’, the Saltee Islands (www.salteeislands.info) now have a peaceful existence as one of Europe’s most important bird sanctuaries. Over 375 recorded species make their home here, 4km offshore from Kilmore Quay, principally the gannet, guillemot, cormorant, kittiwake, puffin, aux and the Manx shearwater. The best time to visit is the spring and early-summer nesting season. The birds leave once the chicks can fly, and by early August it’s eerily quiet.
The two islands, the 90-hectare Great Saltee and the 40-hectare Little Saltee, feature some of Europe’s oldest rocks, dating back over 2000 million years, and were inhabited as long ago as 3500 to 2000 BC. From the 13th century until the dissolution of the monasteries, they were the property of Tintern Abbey, after which various owners were granted the land.
Two of the Wexford rebel leaders, Bagenal Harvey and John Colclough, hid here after the failed 1798 Rising. They were betrayed by a paid informer, tracked down in a six-hour manhunt, taken to Wexford, hanged, and their heads stuck on spikes.
Boats make the trip from Kilmore Quay harbour, but docking depends on the wind direction and is often impossible. Contact local boatmen such as Declan Bates ( 053-912 9684, 087 252 9736; day trip €25), who also runs a 1½-hour trip around the islands (€20).
For more information read Saltees: Islands of Birds and Legends by Richard Roche and Oscar Merne (O’Brien Press).
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HOOK PENINSULA & AROUND
The road shadowing the long, tapering finger of the Hook Peninsula is signposted as the Ring of Hook coastal drive. Around every other bend is a quiet beach, a crumbling fortress, a stately abbey or a seafood restaurant, and the world’s oldest working lighthouse is flung out at its tip.
Strongbow (Robert FitzGilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke) landed here on his way to capture Waterford in 1170, reputedly instructing his men to land ‘by Hook or by Crooke’, the latter referring to the nearby settlement of Crooke in County Waterford across the harbour.
Duncormick to Wellington Bridge
The promontory east of the Hook Peninsula, signposted as the Bannow Drive, is littered with Norman ruins. The invaders founded a town at Bannow, yet nothing of it remains other than a ruined church. Enthusiastic historians, eyeing the uneven ground in front of the church and the shifting sands of the estuary, speak of the ‘buried city of Bannow’.
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PRINCE OF THE SALTEES
The Saltees were bought in 1943 by Michael Neale, who immediately proclaimed himself ‘Prince of the Saltees’. Something of a strange one, he erected a throne and obelisk in his own honour on Great Saltee, and had a full-blown coronation ceremony there in 1956. Although the College of Arms in London refuted Neale’s claim to blue blood, he won a small victory when Wexford County Council began addressing letters to ‘Prince Michael Neale’.
The prince broadcast his intention to turn Great Saltee into a second Monte Carlo, but was distracted by a war right on his doorstep. In an escalation of hostilities, he released two ferrets, then a dozen foxes, then 46 cats onto the island to kill the rabbits that he hated so.
Prince Michael died in 1998, but before his death decreed: ‘All people, young and old, are welcome to come, see and enjoy the islands, and leave them as they found them for the unborn generations to come, see and enjoy.’
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Bannow Bay is a sanctuary for wildfowl including brent geese, redshank, wigeon and teal, and is also a cultivation site for Irish oysters. The remains of the medieval village of Clonmines, which fell into decline when its estuary silted up, are southwest of Wellington Bridge. The ruins are on private land, but there’s a good view just south of the bridge as you head north into town. The redbrick chimney in a roadside paddock on the other side of the bridge is an old silver mine. It was in operation from the 1530s