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CROSSABEG

CO. WEXFORD · IE

Crossabeg
Cros an Bheic, Co. Wexford

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 03 / 06

Cros an Bheic · Co. Wexford

Five kilometres north of Wexford on the Slaney. A parish, a pitch, and a ruin in the reeds.

Crossabeg is a small parish village on the road from Wexford to Castlebridge, about five kilometres north of the town. The Slaney runs along the eastern edge of the parish before it widens into the estuary at Wexford Harbour; the road runs along the western edge, past the church, the pitch, and a string of houses that have been there long enough to lean. It is the kind of place that does not declare itself - you can drive through it in under a minute, and most people on the N11 don't realise they have.

The thing worth slowing for is on the river. Deeps Castle, a 14th- or 15th-century Norman tower house, stands on the Slaney where the channel deepens at a sharp bend - the place name was originally just 'the Deeps'. It was a Devereux holding for the late medieval period and passed to the Randall family in the Cromwellian settlement; the Randalls were Quakers and ran a Society of Friends community out of the Deeps for several generations. The castle is ruined and on private ground. You will not be doing a guided tour. You can see it from the river and, with permission and good directions, from one or two field gates.

Population

Small parish village, a few hundred residents

Walk score

Five minutes from one end to the other; the river is the long walk

Founded

Parish village on the Slaney; Deeps Castle on the river dates to the 14th-15th century

Coords

52.3833° N, 6.4500° W

01 / 05

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 Deeps

A Norman tower house on a deep bend of the Slaney.

Deeps Castle sits on the river just east of the village - a 14th- or 15th-century tower house, held by the Devereux family and later by the Randalls after the Cromwellian settlement. Roofless, riverside, on private land.

Stories & lore → 02 The Quakers

A Society of Friends settlement in the 17th century.

The Randall family took on the Deeps after the Cromwellian campaign and brought a Quaker community with them. The meeting is long gone; the family name is still on the land.

Stories & lore → 03 The football

Ferrycarrig Park is the home of Wexford FC.

The League of Ireland First Division ground sits between the village and Ferrycarrig. Wexford FC play here; the Wexford Youths women's side has used the same pitches. League games, mainly Friday evenings in season.

Stories & lore →

02 / 05

Stories & lore.

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

A Norman tower at a bend in the Slaney

Deeps Castle

The castle takes its name from the river - this stretch of the Slaney is deeper than the channels above and below it, and the Normans built a tower house here to watch boats moving up to Enniscorthy and down to Wexford. The structure dates to the 14th or 15th century. It was Devereux land for the medieval period; after Cromwell, the Randall family took it on. The tower lost its roof a long time ago and has not been a serious residence in centuries. It stands on private farmland on the river side of the village and is not a managed visitor site. The OPW does not run it. Don't go pushing through fields looking for it - admire it from the water if you are on the river, and from the village if you are not.

A Quaker chapter on a Norman ruin

The Randalls and the Friends

When the Randall family took on the Deeps in the 17th century they brought with them a Quaker presence - a Society of Friends community whose burial ground and meeting tradition sat alongside the older Catholic parish. The Quaker layer in Wexford ran from the 1650s into the 19th century in pockets, much of it concentrated around Lambstown, Forest, and the Deeps. The community here is long dispersed. The reason it matters is that for a couple of centuries this small Slaney village held two religious traditions side by side, on land that had previously been a Norman military holding. The name Randall is still on local maps.

The League of Ireland on a parish road

Ferrycarrig Park

Between Crossabeg and Ferrycarrig there is a football ground - a pitch and a stand and a clubhouse - that holds the unusual distinction of being a senior League of Ireland venue on a country road. Wexford FC, founded in 2007, play their home games here in the First Division. The women's side, Wexford Youths Women's FC, have used the same complex. The ground is not a stadium in any grand sense - capacity well under two thousand, plastic seats, a single covered stand - but the football is real and the floodlit Friday-night fixtures bring more strangers into the parish than anything else in the calendar.

03 / 05

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The river is at its best in April - the tide pulls hard at the Deeps and the reeds come back. Quiet roads. Sundays are for the GAA pitch up the road in Castlebridge.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings, the Ferrycarrig Hotel busy with weddings, Wexford town five kilometres away in full holiday mode. The village itself stays calm.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Football season at Ferrycarrig Park, the Slaney mudflats filling with waders, the first geese arriving on the Slob across the harbour. The best month here is October.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days, very little open in the parish itself. Use Wexford town as a base and drive up for an hour on a bright morning.

◐ Mind yourself

04 / 05

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Going looking for Deeps Castle on foot from the village

It is on private farmland on the river side. There is no signposted access, no car park, no information board. Get a glimpse from a boat on the Slaney or accept that this is one of those ruins you read about more than walk to.

Treating Crossabeg as a place to base a Wexford trip

There is no hotel in the village itself and the food and pub options are very thin. Stay in Wexford town five kilometres south and drive up here for the football, the river, or the church.

Getting there.

By car

Wexford town to Crossabeg is about five kilometres north on the R741, ten minutes. Dublin is roughly two hours via the M11/N11; turn off for Castlebridge and the parish road runs through.

By bus

Wexford Bus run a local Bridge Loop service from Wexford town that passes through Crossabeg and Castlebridge several times a day. Bus Éireann's Wexford-Dublin coaches stop in Wexford town; transfer locally.

By train

Nearest station is Wexford O'Hanrahan, about five kilometres south, on the Dublin Connolly-Rosslare Europort line.

By air

Dublin Airport is the obvious one - two hours by car. Rosslare Europort is 25 minutes south and useful if you arrived by ferry.