The gate that survived by accident
The tower everyone calls Westgate isn’t the West Gate at all. Its real name is Selskar Gate, and it outlasted the rest of Wexford’s medieval gates for an unglamorous reason: it was never a public gate. Sir Stephen Devereux had it built in the 13th century, on the instructions of King Henry III, as a private, toll-free entrance for the monks of the adjoining Selskar Abbey – not a road into town. So when the town’s public gates were knocked down in the 1700s to let traffic through, this one had no traffic to clear, and was left standing. The actual West Gate – the Cow Gate – stood less than 50 metres away on what’s now the R730; it came down in 1759, and over time its name drifted onto the surviving tower next door.
It’s the last of Wexford’s medieval gates, then, and worth half an hour. Like the others it had a toll-taking area, cells for offenders and rooms for the guards, with a small tower house added on top around the 1300s. A neglected wreck for much of the 20th century, it was restored in the 1980s well enough to win a Europa Nostra Diploma of Merit in 1989, and the gate and its old coach houses now hold the Westgate Heritage Centre.
Inside, and up top
The ground floor shows artefacts dug up around the town and runs an orientation film on Wexford’s history. Fair warning: the film runs close to half an hour, and at least one visitor has found it more thorough than anyone needed – there’s no shame in stepping out early and going up the stairs instead.
A narrow stone staircase climbs to the reconstructed Norman rooms and out onto the rebuilt battlements. If you do one thing here, do this: the battlements walk runs from the tower through to Selskar Abbey behind it, which is the best of the visit. The centre doubles as a working building too – there’s a music rehearsal space let to local musicians at subsidised rates – so it isn’t only a museum.
One honest catch: you can walk through to the abbey, but the ruins themselves are only opened for guided tours in July and August. Outside those months you’ll see Selskar Abbey from the outside but not get inside it. Opening hours for the tower vary and aren’t reliably posted either, so contact the centre before a special trip.
Visiting
- Where: Westgate Street, a two-minute walk north of Redmond Square in the centre of Wexford town.
- Getting there: bus routes 61, 62 and 63 stop at Redmond Square. On-street parking on Westgate Street is limited; the large Pay-and-Display car park at Key West (opposite SuperValu) is the central option, and there’s a barrier-protected car park across Wexford Bridge in Ferrybank, a five-minute walk over.
- Access: the approach path and ground-floor exhibition are level and wheelchair accessible, but the staircase to the Norman rooms and battlements is original, steep and not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs.
- Dogs: leashed dogs are fine on the outdoor walkway and battlements, but not inside the heritage centre.
- Facilities: there are toilets in the restored coach houses beside the tower.
Nearby
- Selskar Abbey – the abbey ruins right behind the tower, reached by the battlements walk (interior by guided tour in summer).
- National Opera House – Wexford town’s modern landmark and the focus of the autumn opera festival, a short walk away.
- Irish National Heritage Park – a recreation of 9,000 years of Irish settlement at Ferrycarrig, just outside the town.
Start a Wexford town history walk here rather than finishing it: get the lie of the medieval town from the battlements first, then head down into the streets it once guarded.