The wreck
The Sampson is a crane barge that has been stuck on the rocks at Rams Head, just outside Ardmore, since December 1987. It sits upright and fully exposed – no sand, no silt, just a rusting steel hull stripped of paint and machinery, wedged where the tide left it. You do not go to the Sampson so much as walk past it: it is one stop on the Ardmore cliff walk, and that is the honest way to visit. The barge itself you view from the path above; you cannot climb onto it or reach it, and after the collapse of its jib in April 2016 there is less of it than there used to be.
How it got there
The barge was built in 1959 by Lobnitz & Company – 54.86m long, 974 tonnes – and worked as a floating crane around European ports for nearly thirty years. Its last voyage began on 9 December 1987, under tow from Liverpool to Valletta in Malta. Off the Welsh coast on the 11th the towline snapped, leaving the barge adrift and unmanned. Its two crew were lifted off by an RAF Sea King from RAF Brawdy, and the Sampson drifted south until it ran hard aground at Rams Head at about 07:50 on 12 December. It was too big and too awkwardly positioned to salvage; despite the odd debate in Dáil Éireann about removing it, it has been left where it is.
One correction worth making, because a lot of guides get it wrong: the Sampson’s propeller was not kept in Ardmore. It was removed and mounted outside the Commodore Hotel in Cobh in 1991, across the county in Cork. And you will see the wreck dated to 1988 in places – that is a common error; it grounded in 1987.
Walking to it
The Sampson sits on the Ardmore cliff walk, a 4km loop that takes about an hour to an hour and a half, starting and finishing near the seafront. It is well signposted and mostly level, though the stretches near the headland are narrow and exposed to the wind. The wreck is only part of the appeal. On the way round you pass:
- an 1867 coastguard station and a Napoleonic-era watchtower;
- a World War II lookout post;
- St Declan’s Well, an early-Christian holy well;
- a 12th-century round tower, 29 metres tall, from Ardmore’s days as one of Ireland’s oldest monastic sites;
- the sandy cove at Goat Island, down a short lane off the main path.
The walk is the final leg of St Declan’s Way, the 115 km pilgrim route from Cashel in Tipperary. Along the cliffs you may see rock pipits, kestrels, peregrine falcons and pheasants.
Getting the shot
The wreck photographs best in low light – sunrise warms the rusted hull, late afternoon picks out the texture of the cliffs. Include the headland in the frame to give a sense of scale. Low tide exposes more of the hull and the rocks it sits on; high tide brings the waves up against the steel. Check the tide tables before you go.
Practical information
The walk is free and open year-round. Park at the Ardmore Beach car park on the sea front, which gets busy on summer afternoons. There are no facilities on the walk itself; the toilets, cafés and shops are back in Ardmore village. The cliffs drop sharply to the sea, so keep to the marked path and well back from the edge in wet or windy weather – the rocks are slippery and waves surge without warning. Wear footwear with grip.
Nearby
Combine the walk with Ardmore village and its early-Christian sites. Further along the coast, Dunmore East has a working harbour and seafood restaurants, Bunmahon a sheltered bay, and the Copper Coast Geopark fossil-rich cliffs and a scenic coastal drive.