Ballycanew is one of the small inland villages of north Wexford - a crossroads with two churches, a few houses, and the country running off in every direction toward Gorey, Camolin and Courtown. Most visitors meet it through a windscreen on the way somewhere else. That's the honest measure of the place: not a destination, a passing-through.
The reason to slow down is the 1798 Rebellion. North Wexford in May and June of that year was a landscape of burnings, ambushes and forced marches, and Ballycanew is on the map of it. The chapel here was burned by the yeomanry in the days around the burning of Boolavogue chapel four miles south, and the local men joined Father John Murphy's column. The story belongs to Boolavogue and Oulart and Vinegar Hill - but it ran through here too, and a small graveyard in a small village in north Wexford is part of that story whether the signpost says so or not.
Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.
The Catholic chapel at Ballycanew was among the north Wexford chapels burned during the spring of 1798. The same week the chapel at Boolavogue went up, and the rebellion began.
Stories & lore → 02 The roadBallycanew sits on the R741 a few miles south-west of Gorey. The M11 took the through-traffic away years back, which suits the village fine.
The lay of the land → 03 The two churchesThe Catholic parish church of St Moling and the Church of Ireland parish church of St Mogue sit in the same small village. The names cross - Mogue and Moling are both early-medieval Irish saints - and the graveyards hold a lot of local history.
Stories & lore →The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.
There is no bad time. There are different times.
Late May is the right time if you're following the 1798 trail - the commemorations at Boolavogue, Oulart and The Harrow are within a short drive.
Long evenings, dry lanes, Courtown beach twenty minutes east if you want the sea after the graveyards.
Quiet country, good light, no crowds. The village is at its most itself in October.
Not much to do here in the dark months. Pair it with Gorey for shops and food and treat Ballycanew as a quick stop.
If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.
It isn't one. The village is fifteen minutes of looking. Build it into a 1798 day that takes in Boolavogue, Oulart Hill, Ferns and Enniscorthy, and it earns its place.
There isn't one. The Father Murphy Centre is at Boolavogue and the National 1798 Centre is at Enniscorthy. Ballycanew is a footnote on that trail, not a stop.
Off the R741 between Gorey and Oulart. From Gorey it is about ten minutes south-west; from the M11 the easiest exit is junction 23 (Gorey south) then onto the R741.
No regular service into the village itself. Bus Éireann and Wexford Bus run the Dublin-Wexford corridor along the M11 - alight at Gorey or Camolin and drive the last few miles.
Nearest stations are Gorey and Enniscorthy on the Dublin-Rosslare line. About fifteen minutes by car from either.
Dublin Airport is about 1h 30m up the M11. Rosslare Europort is 50 minutes south.