Overview
The one thing to see in Ballygarrett takes five minutes: the pews inside St Mary’s Star of the Sea are made from the timbers of a shipwreck. The rest is a small farming village a couple of kilometres inland from the Irish Sea, on the R742 between Courtown and Kilmuckridge, that most people pass through on the way to the beaches. It’s worth the short stop, and the church is open in daylight if you want to make it.
The shipwreck church
St Mary’s Star of the Sea was built between 1838 and 1859 in the Gothic Revival style, its high tower marking the middle of the village street. Two things inside repay a look. The stained glass came from the Harry Clarke Studios in Dublin. And the wooden pews were salvaged from the Pomona, an American clipper carrying emigrants from Liverpool to New York that ran aground on the Blackwater Bank offshore on 27–28 April 1859; more than 400 of the 448 aboard drowned, one of the worst wrecks on this coast. You sit on what came ashore.
In the church grounds stand two monuments: one to the dead of the Great Famine, and one to the village’s odd trans-Atlantic twin. Ballygarrett has been paired with Refugio, Texas, since 1996, as the birthplace of James Power, a Wexford man who became a Texas empresario and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Beside the Catholic church, the ruined Church of Ireland building has stood disused since around 1840.
The area’s roots run deeper still. At Donaghmore (Domhnach Mór, ‘the great church’) just outside the village, tradition puts a visit by Saint Patrick, and there’s evidence of an early Christian site.
Glascarrig priory and moat
A short way off, at Glascarrig, the remains of a 13th-century Benedictine priory sit beside a well-preserved Norman moat – a raised earthwork, not a water-filled ditch – thought to mark the site of a castle built after 1175. It’s a quiet field with uneven, grassy ground: good for ten minutes of history, awkward for anyone with limited mobility.
What else to do
- Pirates Cove – The family activity centre near the village opens daily through the summer, with fun caves, adventure golf, ten-pin bowling, bumper boats and a small train. It’s the reason a lot of families stop here at all.
- The GAA – The local club, Réalt na Mara, was formed in 1982 from the merger of two older village clubs and fields both hurling and football teams. A summer fixture on the village pitch is worth catching if the timing lands.
- A pint and bait – The village petrol station doubles as a bait-and-tackle shop for the shore anglers, and the Schooner is the local for a quiet pint.
Getting there and practical notes
Ballygarrett sits on the R742, about 12km south of Gorey, with free on-street parking near the church. Public transport is thin: one bus a day (not Sundays) to and from Gorey, morning out and afternoon back. Bus Éireann route 379 runs Mondays and Saturdays (on to Wexford via Curracloe); route 879 covers Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; on Wednesdays the Rural Roadrunner service takes the route. The nearest railway station is Gorey, roughly 12km away, on the Dublin–Rosslare line.
The main street and church are level and manageable with a wheelchair or buggy; the Glascarrig earthworks are not. There’s no visitor centre in the village – the Gorey tourist office handles regional maps and trail information.
Nearby
- Cahore Point – A short drive north to a small working harbour and a sheltered sandy strand, good for a walk.
- Morriscastle – A long dune-backed beach a few minutes south, quieter than the Courtown resorts.
- Courtown – The nearest resort town, with a harbour, a lifeboat station and a run of cafés and chippers.
Time it for a weekday morning: see the church and monuments before the summer beach traffic builds, then push on to Cahore or Morriscastle for the afternoon.