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Town in County Wexford, Ireland
Photo: Suckindiesel, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
New Ross is a town in County Wexford on the River Barrow. Old Ross was Ros mhic threoin, a defensive earthwork amidst the woods, and 13th century English settlers built a bridge and new town. The river is tidal and navigable so the town was an important port in medieval times; a battle of the 1798 rebellion was fought here. There was much emigration from New Ross in the famine years, including by the ancestors of US President John F Kennedy. Nevertheless the town grew to straddle the river, with its western edge in County Kilkenny, and in 2022 its population was 8600.
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This vessel is a three-masted barque, a 2001 replica of the original Dunbrody. That barque built 1845 carried many thousands away to North America in the famine years. It was considered a good vessel as few passengers died - many would be already moribund from starvation and disease when they boarded. A typical "coffin ship" of that era could suffer 50% mortality. The ship is permanently moored and you visit by guided tour, then view the museum of the emigrant experience in your own time. The original ship was converted to freight after 1851, but sank off Labrador in 1875.
This farm was the birthplace in 1823 of Patrick Kennedy, the great-grandfather of US President John F Kennedy (1917-1963). Patrick emigrated to Boston in 1848 and married Bridget Murphy, also from New Ross. The family were almost wiped out by cholera, but one son Patrick Joseph Kennedy survived to become a US businessman and politician, and to found a dynasty. The family still farm here, and JFK came to have tea with them in 1963.
250 hectare park with 4500 species of trees and shrubs, dogs welcome. It was planned as a memorial after his assassination, and opened in 1968.
Substantial remains of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1182 and dissolved in 1536. There's also a museum and a yew hedge maze, buy the combi ticket for these.
Reliable restaurant serving Italian classics.
Upscale inventive local cuisine.
The name suggests a flop-house, but it's a clean friendly B&B right in town centre. No dogs.
Pleasant B&B north side of town.
Welcoming stylish guesthouse.
Well-run family-friendly hotel 700 m south of centre, with 78 rooms, conference facilities, Solas Croí Spa and good restaurant.
Upscale modern spa hotel, where your main task is to conjure up ailments amenable to their cranio-sacral reflexology, McLoughlin scar tissue release, Enagic Kangen water therapy, and dozens more.
This is the closest campsite to town, 5 km north across the river in County Kilkenny. Glamping it's not, very basic natural site but friendly helpful owner. No caravan pitches.
Upscale hotel and spa in a Georgian Rectory, dog-friendly. Its extensive gardens are open to non-residents.
By road from Dublin take N7 / M9, leaving at junction 11 for R704 east. You could also follow N11 / M11 down the coast to Enniscorthy then N30 southwest. From Rosslare ferry port follow N25 past Wexford then west.
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