New Ross Country Market

What to Expect

New Ross Country Market sets up every Friday morning at New Ross Rugby Club on Hospital Road, on the edge of town. Like Fethard on Sea’s market, it runs on the country market model, a long-standing Irish system where local home producers, rather than commercial traders, bring what they have baked, grown or made that week to sell from simple stalls. Regulars can expect fresh bread and pastries, seasonal vegetables, herbs, fruit and plants, and a changing selection of craft items such as preserves, cards and knitwear. The market has a strong social side to it: alongside the stalls there is usually tea and coffee and a chance to sit down for a chat, and it functions as much as a weekly meeting point for New Ross people as a shopping trip, with regular customers swapping recipes and news with the producers as much as buying from them. Because everything is homemade rather than mass-produced, the exact range of stalls and stock varies from week to week depending on the season and who has turned up to sell, with more soft fruit, salad crops and cut flowers on the tables in summer than in the depths of winter.

Good to Know

• Every Friday, 10:00am to 1:00pm
• Location: New Ross Rugby Club, Hospital Road, New Ross, Co. Wexford
• Free to browse and enter; bring cash, as country market stalls are rarely set up for card payments
• Stock includes home-baked bread and pastries, vegetables, herbs, fruit, plants and crafts
• Tea and coffee usually available, making it a social stop as well as a shopping one
• Check the market’s Facebook page ahead of bank holiday weekends for date changes

Getting There

New Ross Rugby Club is on Hospital Road on the edge of New Ross town, with its own club car park available to market visitors.