Rosbercon, Ros Beircheon, Co. Wexford

Ros Beircheon · Co. Wexford

The Wexford-side end of New Ross - same town, different county, one bridge between them.

Rosbercon is the bit of New Ross that nobody in New Ross thinks of as separate. Cross the old bridge from the quay on the Wexford side of the river, climb up the west bank, and you are technically in another townland - but you have not left the town. The shops at the end of the bridge serve the same people. The schools take the same children. The pubs hold the same arguments. The county boundary runs down the middle of the Barrow, and the only reason most people notice it is when the hurling comes on.

The village dates back to the 13th century, growing up around Rosbercon Friary - a Dominican house founded in 1267, suppressed in 1539 under the Reformation, and now almost entirely gone. The Church of the Assumption is the modern parish church, and the parish itself sits in the Diocese of Ossory, which is run from Kilkenny. That is the wrinkle. The civil county is Wexford; the ecclesiastical diocese is Kilkenny; the sporting affiliation is, for many, Kilkenny too. The 2020 opening of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge a kilometre upstream finally took the through-traffic off the old bridge, which has changed Rosbercon more than anything else this century - the quiet on the west bank now is something the older people remark on.

What you actually do here is walk across the bridge and use New Ross. There is one or two pubs, a takeaway, the church, the houses up the hill. Rosbercon is not a destination in the way New Ross is. It is the other end of the same town, and the view back across the Barrow at the New Ross quayside - the Dunbrody at her berth, the line of the medieval streets climbing the east bank - is the best view of New Ross there is.

Population

699 (2022)

Walk score

Cross the bridge in three minutes, you are in New Ross

Founded

13th century - village around the friary

Coords

52.3953° N, 6.9461° W

01 / 08

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 bridge

One river, two counties, three minutes apart.

The old town bridge drops you on the Wexford bank at Rosbercon. The N25 Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge, 887 metres of post-tensioned concrete and the longest bridge in Ireland, opened in 2020 a kilometre upstream and took the traffic with it.

Stories & lore → 02 The friary

Dominican house, 1267 to 1539.

Rosbercon Friary was a Black Friars foundation on the west bank, working in parallel with the Augustinian and Franciscan houses across the river in New Ross. Suppressed under Henry VIII. Almost no fabric survives above ground.

Stories & lore → 03 The identity

Officially Wexford. Spiritually Kilkenny.

The townland is in County Wexford. The parish is in the Diocese of Ossory, run from Kilkenny. Half the locals wear black and amber for the hurling. The county line runs down the middle of the river and through the middle of people.

Stories & lore →

02 / 08

The pubs.

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

Roche's

Quiet, local

Local pub

John Roche's bar on the west bank, listed at 051 421487. Small, plain, the kind of place that does not advertise. A pint here is a pint in Rosbercon - across the river the pubs are New Ross.

The Parish Pump

No-nonsense

Local pub

The other Rosbercon pub, 051 422926. Walking distance from the bridge. Local trade.

03 / 08

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Tony's Takeaway	Takeaway	€	Upper Rosbercon, at the bridge end. Open evenings, late on Friday and Saturday. Chips, burgers, the usual. Eat them on the wall by the river.

04 / 08

Stories & lore.

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

A Dominican house, 1267 to 1539

Rosbercon Friary

The Dominicans - Black Friars - arrived in Ireland in the 1220s and within fifty years had a chain of houses across the south-east. The Rosbercon foundation went up in 1267 on the west bank of the Barrow, across the river from the new Norman town that William Marshal had laid out at New Ross a sixty years earlier. The friary worked alongside the Franciscan and Augustinian houses on the New Ross side - three orders, two banks, one river. Henry VIII's suppression in 1539 closed it. In 1635 David Rothe, the Catholic Bishop of Ossory, wrote that the three Dominican houses in his diocese - Kilkenny, Rosbercon, Aghaboe - were destroyed or converted to profane use. Almost no fabric survives above ground today.

One river, two bridges, four hundred years

The bridge crossing

There has been a bridge between New Ross and Rosbercon since the medieval town was founded - Marshal threw the first one across in the early 13th century. The current town bridge is the latest in a long line of replacements, and for most of the modern period it carried the full N25 traffic between Waterford and Wexford. In January 2020 the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge opened a kilometre upstream - 887 metres long, longest bridge in Ireland, the longest post-tensioned concrete spans of their type in the world. The trucks went up the new bridge. The old bridge went quiet. Rosbercon noticed the difference within a week.

A village in two counties at once

The Wexford-Kilkenny line

Rosbercon is officially in Wexford - the townland and civil parish both. But the parish in the Catholic sense belongs to the Diocese of Ossory, which is administered from Kilkenny. The wider Rosbercon parish extends west into Kilkenny proper, and for sporting matters - hurling, particularly - many residents identify as Kilkenny rather than Wexford. Joint working groups of councillors from both county councils meet to sort out things like roadworks and drainage that fall across the county line. Census forms and GAA jerseys do not always agree in Rosbercon, and that has been the case for as long as anyone can remember.

05 / 08

Things to do outside.

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

The bridge and the quayside Walk from Upper Rosbercon down to the old bridge, cross to the New Ross quay, walk south past the Dunbrody to the Ros Tapestry centre, and back. The view of New Ross from the Rosbercon side at evening - the medieval streets stacked up the east bank, the masts at the quay - is the picture of the town.

1.5 kmdistance

30 mintime

The friary site Walk up through the older part of the village to the site of the Dominican friary. There is little to see above ground - almost no fabric survives the 1539 suppression - but the lie of the ground tells the story, and you are standing on a 13th-century footprint. Best paired with the Tholsel and St Mary's across the river.

1 kmdistance

20 mintime

06 / 08

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The Barrow is at its best in spring - the trees come out along both banks and the river is high and clean. New Ross across the bridge has the Dunbrody and the Kennedy Arboretum in full swing.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings on the river. Walk the bridge late and the New Ross quay is lit up the far side. The summer events in New Ross are five minutes' walk away.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

The river goes silver. The Arboretum trees turn. The town gets back to itself once the schools go back. The quiet season.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Cold wind off the river. The town shops in New Ross stay open but Rosbercon itself goes into its winter hours. The friary site is bleak and worth seeing in February if you want the bones of the place.

◐ Mind yourself

07 / 08

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Treating Rosbercon as a separate visit

It is not a separate place. It is the west-bank end of New Ross, and almost everything you would come here for is across the bridge. Park in Rosbercon if New Ross is full, walk the bridge, do New Ross. That is the visit.

Looking for the friary ruin

Almost no fabric of Rosbercon Friary survives above ground. The 1539 suppression and four hundred years of building over the site have left a footprint and a name. The story is worth knowing. The site is not worth a special trip - pair it with the Norman town across the river.

Driving from Waterford to Wexford via the old town bridge

The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge opened in 2020 specifically to take the through-traffic out of the town. Use it. The old bridge is for walking now, and Rosbercon is quieter for it.

Getting there.

By car

Rosbercon is the west bank of New Ross - cross the old town bridge from the New Ross quay and you are there. From the N25 bypass, take the New Ross exit and follow signs to the town centre.

By bus

Bus Éireann routes to New Ross stop in the town centre on the east bank, a short walk across the bridge to Rosbercon.

By train

No train. Nearest station is Waterford Plunkett, 25 minutes by car.

By air

Dublin (DUB) is 2 hours. Waterford Airport (WAT) is 30 minutes but flights are limited.