Rosslare Strand, Ros Láir, Co. Wexford

Ros Láir · Co. Wexford

Six kilometres of yellow strand and the sunniest patch of Irish sky.

Rosslare Strand is the original Rosslare. The harbour and ferry port five kilometres south is a different place that ended up with a similar name. If you booked a hotel "in Rosslare" expecting a beach and you got a ferry terminal, this is what went wrong. The strand is the village. The Europort is the port.

What's here is a six-kilometre run of yellow sand, a Blue Flag, a links course on the dunes, and a 130-year-old family hotel that has done more to keep the place alive than the Wexford tourist board ever managed. In summer the village quintuples in size and the carparks fill by ten. In winter half of it shuts and the wind off the Irish Sea has nothing soft to land on.

The strand is the reason. It is genuinely flat, genuinely safe, genuinely yellow - closer to a Norman beach than an Irish one - and it gets more sun than anywhere else in the country. In 1959 the weather station here logged 1,996 hours of it, a national record that still stands. Locals call this the Sunny South-East and mean it.

There was another Rosslare once, on a sand spit that stretched miles north into the bay. Forty houses, a school, a lighthouse, a lifeboat station, and a fort guarding the entrance to Wexford Harbour. The winter of 1924-25 took it. The spit breached in three places in a single night. The villagers rowed out in their own lifeboats. What's left is a low island visible at low tide, and a long story the older locals still tell properly.

Population

1,795 (2022)

Walk score

Village in fifteen minutes; beach goes on for six kilometres

Founded

Railway opened 1882; Kelly's Tea Rooms 1895

Coords

52.2667° N, 6.3833° W

01 / 09

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 strand

Six kilometres of flat yellow sand.

It runs from the village south toward the harbour. Blue Flag, lifeguards in summer, room for everyone in August and nobody in February. The light here is genuinely different.

Walks & outings → 02 Kelly's

A family hotel, five generations in.

Kelly's started as tearooms in 1895 and has been run by the same family since. It's the gravitational centre of the village - half the people here are staying there, the other half work there.

Where to sleep → 03 The lost village

Old Rosslare washed away in 1925.

There was another Rosslare, on a sand spit running north. Forty houses, a school, a lighthouse, a lifeboat station. A storm in winter 1924-25 breached the spit and the sea took the lot.

Stories & lore →

02 / 09

The pubs.

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

Culleton's

Local, year-round

Village pub

The pub the locals are in when the resort is closed for January. Pints, talk, a fire. Doesn't dress up for tourists and doesn't need to.

The Ivy Room (Kelly's)

Resort, sociable

Hotel bar with nightly music

Inside Kelly's. Live music most nights in season - covers, ballads, occasional trad. Where the residents end up after dinner. Open to non-residents.

The Tides (Kelly's)

Smarter, slower

Hotel cocktail bar

Quieter sister bar in the hotel. Decent gin list, sea view, the kind of place to read a book in the afternoon if it rains.

03 / 09

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Beaches Restaurant	Hotel restaurant at Kelly's	€€€	The main dining room at Kelly's. Philip Brazil took over as Executive Chef after Eugene Callaghan's fifteen-year run. Four-course set dinner, two sittings, smart wear in the evening. Famous Kelly's art collection on the walls.
La Marine Bistro	Bistro at Kelly's	€€	The casual room at Kelly's. Zinc bar imported from France, fireplace, seafood-leaning menu. Head Chef Michael Gaul. Open to non-residents - book ahead in summer or you won't get in.
Sinnott's	Pub & restaurant	€€	In the village proper, away from the hotel. Pub food done properly - chowder, fish and chips, a roast on Sunday. The thing to eat when you don't want a four-course set menu.
The chipper on the strand	Takeaway	€	Whatever van or hatch is open in summer is the chipper. Eat them on the wall by the strand. Watch the gulls - they are organised and they have plans.

04 / 09

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Kelly's Resort Hotel & Spa	Family resort hotel since 1895	The story. William J Kelly opened tearooms here in 1895; the first hotel followed in 1905. Five generations of Kellys later, Bill Kelly and his daughters Laura and Grace run it. Four stars, two restaurants (Beaches and La Marine), a SeaSpa, swimming pools, five tennis courts, an art collection people travel to see. Books out months ahead in July and August.
St Helen's Bay Golf Resort	Golf resort & cottages, 1993	Five minutes south, near the harbour. 18-hole parkland-and-links course with a view to the Tuskar Rock lighthouse. Four-star self-catering cottages on-site. The golf-trip option, not the family-resort option.
Coast Rosslare Strand Hotel	Mid-range hotel	Modern hotel near the village, ten minutes from Rosslare Europort. Useful if you want a beach base but a ferry the next morning. Less story, more convenience.
A self-catering near the dunes	Self-catering	Plenty of houses and apartments rent by the week in summer. Drive five minutes inland and the prices halve. Worth doing if you have a car and a week.

05 / 09

Stories & lore.

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

Storm of 1924-25

The lost village

Old Rosslare stood at the north end of a sand spit that ran for miles into Wexford Harbour. Forty houses, a school, a Catholic church, a coastguard station, a lighthouse, a lifeboat. The winter storm of 1924-25 breached the spit in three places in a single night. The villagers rowed themselves out in their own lifeboats. By the late twenties the houses were gone and the spit was an island. At low tide you can still see the low rise of it from the modern strand. The CHERISH project mapped what's left underwater a few years back; everything else is in the parish records.

1895 to now

Five generations of Kellys

William J Kelly was an accountant in his late thirties when he had the idea, in 1893, to open tearooms by the new railway station. They opened in 1895. The first proper hotel - fifteen rooms - opened in 1905. His son Billy took over in the 1950s, pioneered off-season Irish holidays at a time nobody believed in them, and put in saunas and squash courts. His son Bill runs it now with daughters Laura and Grace. George Bernard Shaw stayed in the 1920s and wrote of Rosslare's "infinite peace". Seán T. O'Kelly, later President of Ireland, was a guest in 1912.

A 1959 record that still stands

The sunniest place in Ireland

The weather station at Rosslare recorded 1,996.4 hours of sunshine in 1959 - the highest annual total ever logged in Ireland. Met Éireann still has the figure on file and nowhere else has beaten it. On average, Rosslare gets about 300 more sunshine hours a year than the Irish mean. It is not the warmest or the driest - that's Valentia and Dublin respectively - but for hours of actual sun on your face, this is the place.

Rosslare Golf Club, 1905

A links on the dunes

The golf club's first committee met in White's Hotel in Wexford on 2 September 1905, the year the resort started taking itself seriously. It opened as a nine-hole course on the spit of dunes between the Irish Sea and Wexford Harbour. Hawtree and Taylor - the same firm that later worked on Royal Birkdale - were brought in to extend it to eighteen holes; the new course opened on 12 August 1926. The 1905 founding makes it the only true links course in the southeast of Ireland.

06 / 09

Things to do outside.

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

The Strand Walk south from the village along the sand and you can keep going almost to the harbour. Flat, no scrambling, the kind of walk you do barefoot in summer. The light is the point.

About 6 km one waydistance

90 min one waytime

Rosslare Point North end of the strand. A low ridge of dune that's all that's left of the old spit. At very low tide you can see where the lost village stood. Bring a hat - there is no shelter at all.

4 km returndistance

1 hourtime

Burrow Walk to the harbour South along the dunes through the rabbit warren - the 'Burrow' - and on toward Rosslare Harbour. Sections are on the golf-course edge; mind the white flags.

8 km one waydistance

2 hourstime

Tuskar Rock view From the south end of the strand on a clear day you see the Tuskar Rock lighthouse, eleven kilometres offshore. Painted white, blinking every 7.5 seconds, manned for over a century before it went automatic.

Short headland walkdistance

20 mintime

07 / 09

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Quiet, warming up, the strand mostly to yourself. Kelly's reopens fully by Easter. The light starts to do that thing.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The whole village turns into a holiday resort. Carparks full by ten. Book Kelly's and La Marine months ahead. Worth it for the long evenings and the warm sand - but go in early June or late August if you can.

◐ Mind yourself

Autumn

Sep-Oct

September is the sweet spot. Sea is still warm enough, the village empties out, the golf course is at its best, and Kelly's runs midweek breaks worth driving for.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Half of it shuts. The strand in a January storm is genuinely something - wide, empty, raw - but you'll need somewhere to warm up afterwards and most places are closed. Kelly's closes for January. Plan accordingly.

◐ Mind yourself

08 / 09

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Confusing Rosslare Strand with Rosslare Harbour

They're two places, five kilometres apart. The Strand is the beach village. The Harbour/Europort is the ferry terminal. If your hotel reservation says Rosslare, check which one.

Driving down for the day in mid-July

By eleven the carparks are full and the village is at saturation. Go off-season, or stay overnight, or arrive at eight and leave at noon.

The strand in deep winter without a plan B

A January walk on the strand is wonderful. A January walk on the strand followed by realising every café for ten kilometres is shut is less so. Phone ahead.

Booking a Kelly's alternative purely on price

Kelly's is the village. The other hotels are fine but they're not the story. If the budget won't stretch, do a midweek B&B and one dinner at La Marine instead.

Getting there.

By car

Dublin to Rosslare Strand is 2h 15m on the M11/N11/N25 - the M11 runs most of the way to Wexford. From Wexford town it is a 20-minute drive south on the N25/R740.

By bus

Bus Éireann route 740 runs Dublin-Wexford-Rosslare Harbour and stops at Rosslare Strand on the way. Wexford Bus and Local Link also serve the village.

By train

Rosslare Strand has its own railway station on the Dublin Connolly-Rosslare Europort line - the southern terminus stops are Wexford, Rosslare Strand, Rosslare Europort. Three or four services daily, journey from Dublin around 2h 45m.

By air

Dublin Airport (DUB) is two hours by car. Cork is 2h 30m. Waterford Airport is closer but currently only flies seasonal routes.

Next on the tour

Co. Wicklow

Glendalough

An hour and a half north up the N11. A monastic valley, two lakes, a round tower - the opposite scenery and worth the day.

Co. Dublin

Howth

Two hours up the coast. A working fishing harbour with a cliff walk and seafood that earns its postcode.

Co. Dublin

Dalkey

Two hours north on the N11. South-Dublin coastal village with a castle and a ferry-pier swim. Pair it with a Dublin night on the way home.

Co. Wexford

Kilrane

Three kilometres north-west toward the ferry and the harbour traffic.

Co. Wexford

Tagoat

Just inland, a roadside village in the country that once spoke its own old English.