Irish National Heritage Park

The National Heritage Park, in Ferrycarrig, County Wexford, covers 35 acres and takes visitors back through 9,000 years of Irish history. A visit to this natural attraction is completely unique – surprises wait around every turn as visitors explore this remarkable heritage trail. Their senses will come alive with sights and sounds stretching back almost 9,000 years. Recent restoration has seen the ringfort completely rebuilt and surrounded with a massive timber rampart. Inside, the two older buildings have been rethatched in different styles, one using a wheat straw and the other reed. A third building has also been added, an openwork structure suggestive of the out buildings referred to in the texts, but which is intended for use as demonstration area. The park supports a rich abundance of flora and fauna with its hazel woodlands, wet grasslands, ponds and streams. The ponds are home to families of ducks and water hens, while the resident heron may be spotted from time to time along with otters and kingfishers. The park offers a free guided tour that leaves at regular intervals from the Visitor Centre or alternatively, visitors can take an audio tour if they wish to explore at their own pace. A new 180m trail also takes visitors deep into wet woodlands, winding between ancient trees and pools of water, to experience at first-hand what Ireland must have looked like to Stone Age ancestors. This is a type of landscape people rarely get to explore: swamp-woodland, filled with alder and oak, mosses and lichens and teeming with bird life and insects.

attractions

Ferrycarrig