Will be drip feeding these to you over the next few weeks – you can have a too much of a good thing!

Day 3

It turns out that the sat nav doesn’t recognise full Irish postcodes and we only had a general address for today’s destination, which is not on the map. Nevertheless, with the help of the site owner, we made the short journey to Wexford Wildlife Reserve with only one wrong turning. The reserve is small and free to enter. Unless you plan on spending a long time in the hides, you can exhaust its possibilities in about an hour but it was definitely an hour well spent. Most notable amongst the birdlife were the many swallows, readying themselves for journeying south. There was also a SBJ (small brown job) that by dint of taking many photos, I decided afterwards was a reed warbler, although not with 100% level of confidence. I am reasonably good at bird recognition, although hopeless at bird song. I do however struggle to tell my willow warbler from my chiff chaff.

Best of all, the reserve is a centre for the preservation of hares. Imagine our delight when we not only saw several but one stopped within a metre of my feet, despite me sporting my bargainous fluorescent orange coat, acquired at 75% off the recommended price in the end of season sale when in the Lake District last year.

When looking in vain for the wildlife reserve on the map, I spotted that Tintern Abbey was nearby. This was a surprise as I was pretty sure Tintern Abbey was on the Welsh borders. It turns out that THAT Tintern Abbey is indeed in Monmouthshire but this is a related Tintern Abbey. As we had plenty of time we went off plan and headed to Tintern Abbey, which had the added advantage of belonging to the Office of Public Works, which has a reciprocal arrangement with English Heritage, so entry was free.

The Monmouthshire Tintern Abbey was founded in 1137 and William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, set up the Cistercian Abbey of the same name in Wexford, with monks from the Monmouthshire foundation, in about 1200. After a perilous sea crossing to Ireland, the establishment of the monastery was Marshal’s way of giving thanks for his survival. Having been remodelled, the abbey was partly abandoned in the C15th.

Anthony Colclough (later to be knighted for services to the crown) was granted Tintern Abbey and more than 5000 acres of land by Henry VIII and was part of the attempt to secure parts of Ireland that were beyond the Pale (around Dublin) for England and the Protestant religion. He converted the abbey into a fortified manor house. As the need for fortification lessened, it became more of a country house.

Judicious marriages by Sir Thomas Colclough established both Protestant and Catholic branches of the family in Wexford. During the C17th Civil War, Tintern was a refuge for 200 Protestants but was temporarily taken over by the Catholic Colcloughs. After the New Model Army’s massacre of  thousands in Wexford, Cromwell restored ownership to Protestant Sir Caesar Colclough. The last Colclough to reside at Tintern was Lucy Marie Colclough, ‘Miss Marie’. She gifted the parts of Tintern that had not previously been sold off to the nation in 1963.

Having explored the Abbey, we took a short walk to the nearby walled gardens, formerly part of the Colclough estate, which were also worth a visit. The many apple trees produce a local cider.

Back to the van for some refreshment and we decided to do a circular walk to the nearby beach and bird sanctuary. We had been warned that the map was not to scale. This was not wrong and we did end up going rather further than intended and still not making it to the bird sanctuary. The beach at St. Margaret’s Bay is just my sort of beach, wide expanses of sand and very few people. We stopped to examine the local fishing boats and headed inland for rather a long way. Despite the odd shower earlier in the day, all while we were in the car, the late afternoon was glorious, with real strength in the sun. It was lovely to relax in the sunny van after our walk.