Why the Metal Man stands
The Sea Horse
On 30 January 1816 the transport ship Sea Horse — bringing soldiers of the 2nd Battalion 59th Regiment home from the Napoleonic Wars — was driven into Tramore Bay in a gale. She broke up on a shoal a mile from shore. 363 people drowned, including women and children. The five towers above the bay went up in 1823 to warn ships off; the Metal Man was hoisted on top of the central tower in 1824, in time for the eighth anniversary. He's been pointing seaward ever since.
Cork sculptor, Tramore landmark
The Metal Man
The 3-metre cast-iron sailor is the work of Cork-born sculptor Thomas Kirk — the same man who made Nelson on his Pillar in Dublin (since gone). There are two of them: the Tramore one and a twin that ended up in Sligo. The Tramore Metal Man has spent two centuries on Great Newtown Head, hand outstretched, telling ships there is no harbour here. The local lore says single women who hop around the base of his pillar three times will find a husband. Mileage varies.
A boy on the strand
The Lafcadio link
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn — the Greek-Irish-Japanese writer who became Koizumi Yakumo and shaped how the West read Japan — spent boyhood summers in Tramore in the 1850s. The Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens opened above the bay in 2015 to mark the connection. A walking-pace garden in five sections, designed by a Japanese landscape architect. Worth an hour if the day has gone soft.
Three evening cards and a day card
August at the racecourse
The Tramore Racecourse August Festival runs four days the week of the Bank Holiday — three national hunt evening cards and one flat day card. Live music in the marquees at 8pm, fashion off the back of the dress-up day, and 25,000 punters across the four days. The course sits up on the hill above the strand. Walk the Prom afterwards; you'll need it.