Fitzmaurice Caravan & Camping Park, Tramore, County Waterford, Munster

Today was to be all about Waterford, with a Plan B waiting in the wings if there were time. We headed out of camp after breakfast arriving in the center of Waterford soon after 9 am, parking in the Bolton Street carpark recommended on the website of Waterford Crystal, our first destination for the day.

A tour of the factory had been chosen by Chris; something I may well have left aside; he is generally happy to leave me to sort the itinerary so I am always happy to slot in any special requests from my personal Chef.

Realistically the House of Waterford Crystal should be on every visitor’s schedule; after all it is an iconic part of the city. The guide books will tell you Waterford Crystal was established in 1783 but in reality it has had a very spasmodic and chequered history. The industry was  started in 1783 by the Penrose brothers who produced world renowned crystal but closed in 1851, not economically viable.

In 1947 Charles Bacik, a Czech immigrant, established a glass works importing skilled crystal workers from the Continent. In cahoots with fellow countryman Miroslav Havel, the company grew from small beginnings and by the early 1950s it had been taken over by the Irish Glass Bottle company, arather unlikley contender from this perspective.  There have been several other ownership changes over the years, some again due to financial strife; today it is owned by the Finnish company, Fiskars, who also turn out scissors, gardening tools, kitchenware, ceramics, knives and outdoor equipment, an even more unlikely interest. However for the tourist who comes looking for beautifully crafted crystal from Waterford, they don’t need to know any of this.

We joined a tour with perhaps twenty others, a whisk around the factory escorted by a lovely local girl who rattled off her spiel in flawless Irish-accented English. I thought the tour very good as we were led about the various stages of manufacture, observing the craftsmen undertaking their work.  I will now have a greater appreciation of crystal items after seeing the complex processes, although I do think that lots of what we plebs lay our hands on these days is mass produced in automated factories elsewhere.

The tour ended in the shop, of course, where we were free to wander amongst the exquisite products for sale; practical albeit elaborate household items and ornaments, chandeliers, bespoke trophies, sculptural art pieces and other items that fit somewhere in between. The “cheap” souvenir gifts on sale started at €60 and top of the line treasures climbed to tens of thousands of euros such as the crystal framed mirror at €32,500. It will not surprise you to learn that we were not tempted.

Instead we wandered about the city, down to the quay along the River Suir, then up through the shopping areas, buying small necessary bits and pieces along with a haircut for yours truly. The lovely middle aged woman from Tramore, fellow appreciator of Mrs Brown’s Boys but not of Dublin, was indeed a joy to spend time with. She clipped and snipped as requested however her excellent handywork is rather spoiled by the fringe hacking I took upon myself to do a few days ago. Still, hair grows, all is not lost, and I am not looking to impress anyone new anytime soon. It will do.

We also called into one of the two cathedrals here, this the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, the Catholic establishment, but only poked our noses in the door. The building, designed by John Roberts and built in the 1790s is a rather severe looking structure on the outside. The interior is quite lovely however I am always a little cautious about exploring Catholic churches; they are such busy places with people going about their religious business, even in these more enlightened times. We could hear a midday mass being celebrated in one of the small chapels, and parishioners were drifting in to seek peace and offer their prayers to their god, none of this conducive to tourists wandering about sticky-beaking.

Interestingly it was this same John Roberts who designed the adjacent Anglican Christ Church Cathedral, completed about twenty years before the rival instituation across the road.

It was around 1 pm when our parking ran out and we decided we would head off for a drive further afield rather than visit the museums on offer in the city. Perhaps this was a mistake because Waterford does have an important place in Ireland’s history, being the country’s oldest city. In 914 AD the Viking adventurer and pirate, Regnall, grandson of Ivor the Boneless (of whom I am sure you have heard) established a base here and built a Longphort or ships haven, which in time became a modern city. Four years later Regnall took a fleet of ships and sailed from Waterford to York where he became the first Norse ruler of York, giving him the title of “King of Waterford and York”.

The name Waterford comes from its Viking name Veorafjoror which has two possible meanings: “haven from the windswept sea” and “ford of the rams”. (I am inclined to believe the first is more appropriate. )

The city was captured by the Anglo-Normans in 1170 which brought dramatic change to Waterford, all of which leads through to The Plantations, the Rebellions, The Troubles, et al.

So all in all there is much to see and be learned in Waterford, and we did not really do it justice.

Instead we headed up the lower Suir valley, passing the ruins of Granny Castle, and on up to Carrick-on-Suir, just inside County South Tipperary. This small but historical market town, famous as the birthplace of the Clancy Brothers who are or were a folk music group so I’m told, has about 6,000 inhabitants. I would have had us continue on to Cahir and a couple of reputedly lovely villages, but there is only so much one can demand of a long suffering chauffeur. Instead we made our way to Ormond Castle which we had read about in our guide book, tempted by the free entry. Alas it is no longer so, having spent a few years since our guide book was published closed for extensive renovations, now re-opened, spick and span and to be seen in the company of scheduled guides.

Having come this far, we agreed to pay the entry fee of €4 each, especially since the interpretative boards out on the street suggested a most interesting history of the occupants. We were just in time to join four other folk from not too far away, and soon a couple from Germany, all entertained and educated by Paul, passionate about his subject and the building.

Ormand Castle includes Ireland’s only unfortified Tudor Manor House, built in the 1560s on the foundations and ruins of the earlier castle. Thomas Butler, 10^th Earl of Ormond, was a cousin to Elizabeth I through her mother, Anne Boleyn, and had links with the court from a very early age, endearing himself to both Elizabeth and her brother Edward who succeeded his father, Henry VIII. His story is an interesting one and he grew old and rich here with a life full of facts and fables. The Butler family retained ownership through the centuries until the 19^th century, although later occupants were tenants rather than rightful owners. The Office of Public Works took over ownership in the middle of last century, doing massive restoration work in the 1950s, then later again in the 1980s.

I enjoyed our tour through the house very much, especially Paul’s spiel, so much so that I was inspired to suggest to Chris we consider membership to Irish Heritage to enable us free entry to their other heritage sites around the country whilst here, in the same way we have of National Trust and English Heritage. We spent some time discussing the whys and why-nots with the lovely folk at the ticket desk, then lamented the fact we did not have enough cash on us (bearing in mind we are trying to use only cash here rather than be pinged with poor exchange rates and bank transaction fees). Then in the midst of the conversation we let slip we had membership to English Heritage and it was revealed that this allowed us free access to Irish Heritage properties as well. Problem solved and even better, we were refunded our entry fee to Ormond Castle. We will now be more open to visiting properties that fall under this umbrella, however they are only some of the many: there is a larger representation of those administered by Heritage Island, another similar setup.

From Carrick-on-Suir we headed home, more or less in a direct line, across forested hills with fine views back up the Suir Valley into Tipperary, across further pastoral holdings and finally to Tramore where we discovered the Tesco Extra and associated fuel station which offers diesel at the best price we have seen since our arrival on these Emerald Isles.