(by Gerry Moss, April 2011)
A springtime visit to the Hook Head sea-crag.
We are the boys of Wexford, who fought with heart and hand,
To break in twain the savage chain that girths our native land.
More power to them. And didn’t they do well today to draw with All Ireland hurling champions, Tipperary.
Sweet-talked Willie and Joe down to Wexford’s Hook Head on Saturday, with promises of low tides, slack winds and dry, steep rock. We scored on all three points.
I have climbed there a few times before, but never wrote any of the routes up, so this area of bedded limestone is a go as you please, make your own selection, do your own thing, sort of place.
Plenty of steep stuff, most of it coming with good hand and foot holds. Friends large and small are useful in the horizontal bedding cracks. Sometimes you have overhangs at the bottom, and sometimes they come at the top.
Hook Head boasts the oldest operational lighthouse in the world (and I should know, me Da built it, and I helped by carrying the bricks). The tip of the peninsula is a bright and airy spot, with views across to Dunmore East on the Waterford coast and the Comeragh mountains beyond. Access to the climbs is via a stroll along a stretch of The Wexford Way.
All-in-all a good day out.