Because the train no longer runs from Cork to Waterford, we rode a bus through Youghal and Dungarvan and into Waterford City. I tried to grab images along the way but only captured some colorful shops and the city walls of Youghal.
While our bus paused in Dungarvan, we stepped out to stretch our legs and admire Dungarvan Harbor. Removing the tanning works and fish warehouse has converted the area into prime and sweet-smelling tourist real-estate.
After living in County Waterford for a year in the 1960s, I had thought I knew the city fairly well because it was the main shopping town for our family. And indeed, the outlying streets seemed very familiar.
But I was not ready to find so many flashy murals and decorative pedestrian malls.
I wandered up the hill above the shopping district and discovered a new — to me — section of the town.
The Bishop's Palace was quite familiar because my sister had attended boarding school in the building, but now it houses a museum reflecting its ecclesiastical background while also celebrating the lives and entertainments of Waterford in the 1960s. And the streets around it memorialize local history going back to the Vikings who settled here.
Our itinerary for County Waterford involved returning to the Waterford Greenway on rented bikes to ride to Dungarvan, spend the night, and return to the Grenville Hotel on the Waterford Quay. We had ridden down to Dungarvan the year before, so it was familiar ground. Less familiar was Dungarvan itself, which has changed remarkably for the better. Although the Lawlor Hotel I chose has seen better days! The town removed its smelly tanning works and ugly fishing facilities and replaced them with fancy restaurants, gift shops, and new hotels. And the old fortified police station has been opened and repurposed as a historical museum.
Inside the police barracks, a variety of historical documents describe many of the local "Big Houses," including Rockmount where my family lived in the mid-1960s. I was aware the house had been burnt in the 1920 Troubles but had never learned all the details.
As a teenager, when I needed a haircut, I went to see Conn Roach, the proprietor of this barber shop. In the equestrian-suffused culture, I found it a little amusing that I was coming here to be "roached."
The next morning we rode back up the Greenway along the coast and took a walk through the Croagh Woods and the Mahon River Walk, which the locals have constructed to lure walkers into the beautiful countryside.
Full photo album of Waterford and Dungarvan 2023
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