Castlebridge, Droichead an Chaisleáin, Co. Wexford

Droichead an Chaisleáin · Co. Wexford

Five kilometres north of Wexford. A malt-mill village that accidentally invented the Guinness Book of Records.

Castlebridge is a Slaney-edge mill village five kilometres north of Wexford town, on the road to Gorey. The Sow river meets the Castlebridge channel here and the whole place was laid out around a malting industry that ran for two and a half centuries - Nicholas Dixon built the malt house, dock and bridge in 1742, and the Breen and Nunn families later ran the operation that fed barley to Guinness in Dublin. Walk the village today and the bones of it are still industrial: the long stone stores, the canalised river, the old mill conservatory beside the big house.

What surprises people is the geese. The North Slob - flat reclaimed farmland behind a sea-wall on the south side of the village - is one of the two most important wintering grounds on earth for the Greenland white-fronted goose. Around 7,000 birds arrive every October and stay until April. The Wexford Wildfowl Reserve has been managing the land since 1969 and the hides are open year-round. In the off-season the same flats hold lapwing, curlew, and the kind of sky that does most of the work.

The other thing that happened here, somehow, is the Guinness Book of Records. In November 1951 the managing director of Guinness, Sir Hugh Beaver, was out shooting on the Slob and got into an argument that evening at Castlebridge House about Europe's fastest game bird. He couldn't settle it from the library on the wall. Four years later the first edition of the Book of Records was published. The village marks it now. It is, on reflection, an oddly specific origin story for a global publishing phenomenon - and it happened in a country house five kilometres outside Wexford.

Population

~1,840 (2016)

Walk score

Whole village in ten minutes; the Slob is a five-minute drive

Founded

Mill village from 1742; Nicholas Dixon's malt house, dock and bridge

Coords

52.3667° N, 6.4500° W

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The mill

A malt village that fed Guinness for two centuries.

Nicholas Dixon arrived in 1742 with a malt house, a dock and a bridge. The Breens and later the Nunns ran malting barley out of here to the brewery in Dublin until the trade thinned out. The old buildings are still on the river.

Stories & lore → 02 The Slob

Half the world's Greenland white-fronted geese winter here.

The Wexford Wildfowl Reserve sits on the North Slob, a few minutes' drive from the village. October to April, around 7,000 geese arrive - roughly a third of the global population. Two hides, a visitor centre, a long flat road in.

Walks & outings → 03 The shoot

An argument at Castlebridge House in 1951.

Sir Hugh Beaver of Guinness was here for a shoot, missed a golden plover, and rowed at dinner about which bird was Europe's fastest. No book had the answer. Four years later there was one.

Stories & lore →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Porter House

Local-run, awarded

Village pub & food, 100+ years

The pub on Rectory Hall, run by Myles and Sharon Doyle since 2012. Won Irish Pub of the Year and Best Local at the 2017 Pub Awards, which is a lot of silver for a village this size. Food, sport on the screens, a separate quieter room. The local local.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

How a Wexford village fed Dublin pints

The malt road

Nicholas Dixon came in 1742 and built the malt house, the dock, the canal cut, and the bridge that gave the village its modern name. The Breen family took it on; the Nunns of Castlebridge House and Conservatory ran it later. Barley came down the Slaney, malted in the long stone stores, went up to the Guinness brewery in Dublin by canal-cot and later by rail. The canal stayed in use until 1944. The trade thinned through the second half of the twentieth century. The buildings are still standing - the old maltings hold a café, an antique shop, the kind of second life industrial buildings get when the work stops.

A reserve on reclaimed mud

The geese

The North Slob was reclaimed from Wexford Harbour in the 1840s - a Dutch-style polder behind a sea-wall, 1,000 hectares of new farmland for grazing and tillage. The geese found it anyway. Greenland white-fronts started arriving in big numbers in the early twentieth century and now over 7,000 winter here, around a third of the world population. The Wexford Wildfowl Reserve was established in 1969 and is jointly run by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and BirdWatch Ireland. The hides are free. The visitor centre is open most of the year. The geese leave for Greenland at the end of April and the place feels half-empty until October.

How a country-house argument became a global book

Sir Hugh's missed shot

On 10 November 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver - managing director of Guinness - was on a shooting party at the North Slob, hosted at Castlebridge House. He missed a golden plover and got into a dinner argument about whether the plover or the red grouse was Europe's fastest game bird. The library at Castlebridge House had no answer. Beaver figured the same argument was happening in pubs across the country and that a book of records might shift a few pints. Four years later the McWhirter twins compiled the first edition. The Guinness World Records office is in London now. The argument was here.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Wexford Wildfowl Reserve hides Off the village, signposted from the R741. Two hides over the channels, a tower, a visitor centre with the geese counts written on a chalkboard. October to April for the white-fronts; year-round for waders, hen harriers, the occasional otter.

1.5 km of pathsdistance

1-2 hourstime

The Slob sea-wall Walk the embankment that holds the North Slob in. Flat, exposed, brilliant for big-sky birding. Bring binoculars and something windproof - there is no shelter for the whole length of it.

6 km out-and-backdistance

1.5 hourstime

Castlebridge to Wexford by the riverside The R741 has a footpath most of the way and the views are over the Slaney mudflats at low tide. Bus back, or do the round trip if your legs are willing. The light at golden hour is the reason.

5 km one-waydistance

1 hourtime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The geese are still here in March, gone by late April. Waders building up. Long quiet days on the sea-wall.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The Reserve is quieter than the strands at Curracloe and Rosslare, which is the point. No geese, but the breeding waders and terns are at it. Nearby Wexford town is in full holiday mode.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The first geese drift in from Greenland in early October. By the end of the month there are thousands. Easily the best time to be here.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

The whole flock is in. Cold, flat light, hides full of telescopes. Wrap up. The visitor centre has tea.

◉ Go

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Treating Castlebridge as a destination on its own

It is a village with one pub and a great wildlife reserve. Stay in Wexford town five minutes south, drive up for the geese and back for dinner.

Walking the Slob on a windy day in summer cottons

There is no shelter on the sea-wall and the wind off Wexford Harbour does not negotiate. Layers and a windproof, even in July.

Looking for the boycott story

It comes up locally but the firm origin of the word 'boycott' is Lough Mask in Mayo, September 1880. The Mayo claim is the one with the documents.

Getting there.

By car

Wexford to Castlebridge is 5 km on the R741, ten minutes. Dublin is 2 hours via the M11 and N11.

By bus

Local Link route 374 runs Wexford-Gorey via Castlebridge several times a day. Bus Éireann's Wexford-Dublin services stop in Wexford town; transfer there.

By train

Nearest station is Wexford O'Hanrahan, 5 km south. Dublin Connolly is 2h 30m direct.

By air

Dublin Airport is the obvious one - 2 hours by car. Cork is 2h 30m. Waterford airport has been on and off; do not plan around it.

Next on the tour

Co. Wexford

Wexford

Five kilometres south. The Norse port that became the opera town. Eat and sleep there; come up here for the geese.

Co. Wexford

Curracloe

Ten minutes east. Seven kilometres of sand - Spielberg's Omaha Beach, Tóibín's Brooklyn. The other side of the same harbour.

Co. Wexford

Enniscorthy

Twenty minutes up the Slaney. 1798 town, castle, the river running properly fresh by the time it gets up there.

Co. Wexford

Crossabeg

Two kilometres south on the Slaney, a parish, a pitch and a ruin among the reeds.