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heritage · Sunday 23 August 2026 · 2:30pm 
Waterford Wall Walk
At Medieval Museum · Cathedral Square, Waterford, Co. Waterford
At Medieval Museum · Cathedral Square, Waterford, Co. Waterford
Curators Clíona Purcell and Donnchadh Ó Ceallacháin lead a walking tour of Waterford’s medieval defensive walls on Sunday, 23 August 2026, tracing the loop of walls and towers that protected the city for centuries. The walk is free, runs for around two hours and forms part of the Waterford Treasures programme for National Heritage Week. It starts from the Medieval Museum on Cathedral Square and moves out through the modern streets that grew up around the old fortifications.
Waterford was founded by Viking settlers in 914 and later fortified by the Anglo-Normans, and its city walls still shape the streets of the modern city centre even in places where the stone itself has disappeared into later buildings. The two curators point out surviving towers and wall fragments along the route and explain how the defences were built, extended over time and eventually made obsolete as the city outgrew them. The pace is described as moderate and suited to most fitness levels, with regular stops for curators to answer questions and highlight details that are easy to miss when walking the same streets without a guide. Comfortable shoes are recommended given the walk covers a loop of the wider city centre.
The walk starts at the Medieval Museum on Cathedral Square, in the Viking Triangle at the centre of Waterford city. The location is a short walk from Plunkett rail station and the main bus stops, with public parking nearby on the Quay and at the Apple Market.
The wall walk is a good way to get oriented in a city with over a thousand years of history layered into a small footprint, and it connects naturally to the Medieval Museum, Bishop’s Palace and Reginald’s Tower nearby. There is more to see in Waterford and across Co. Waterford.
Heading to Medieval Museum in Waterford? Waterford has plenty more to see. Read the Waterford area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.