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Hook Lighthouse is special to me, an amazing structure that is easily accessible and also so much a lighthouse. It is a lighthouse in every sense of the word, the sort you recall as a child, a place of magic and mystery. To reach it for me involves a five-hour drive across country, but as you near the lighthouse, the journey becomes one of intrigue. You drive south from the hustle and bustle of Waterford, following signs to Passage East where a charming car ferry awaits to take you across the river to Ballyhack on the County Wexford side. As soon as you drive up the dock on the Wesford side you catch your first glimpse of the Hook, some ten miles away, and then as you are looking ahead for further glimpses of the famous black and white tower.
There follows a drive along narrow winding roads, passing Templars Bar. A unique bar filled with artifacts and photos of lighthouses as the proprietor Jimmy Cullen was once in the Irish lighthouse service.
I was first shown around Hook Lighthouse back in 1994 when it was still a manned lighthouse. A tower dating back hundreds of years to when monks cared for it, and as you climb the narrow staircase you find nooks and crannies where the scribes spent their days writing scriptures. Tiny windows, you wouldn’t want much bigger in case you fell out.
It was begging to be opened to the public.
On April 25, 2001 that dream became a reality when the Irish president, President Mary McAleese opened the lighthouse and its Visitors’ Center to the public.
Normally, a visit to the Hook means meeting a couple of people so it was amazing to find the place so full of visitors—everyone from the Commissioners of Irish Lights to ex-keepers and their families and even dancing girls twirling their batons. In amongst all this was Derville Killian, the manager who has done a superb job in bringing the place into fruition.
An amazing 750 years the lighthouse history dates back, and on the guided tour you get to see the inside of the lighthouse and see how life was like for the monks who kept the light over the centuries. A light to guide sailors past the dangerous half-submerged rocks that abound off this particular part of Southeast Ireland.
In its first season the Hook attracted over 20,000 visitors, keen to climb the famous steps and look out from the balcony just below the lantern room over the Irish countryside. After their climb excellent food can be found in the Visitors’ Center, which is inside one of the two converted keepers’ cottages. Or browse the gift shop where you can pick up the author’s postcards of Irish lighthouses. The center cost well over half a million pounds funded primarily from tourism programs of the Bord Failte and the Southeast Regional Tourism Authority and private donations. You can become a member of the Hook Lighthouse and receive free entry tickets, membership card, and an annual newsletter. Individual membership is £25 (about $29).
For more information, you may contact Derville Killian, Hook Lighthouse, Fethard on Sea, County Wexford, Ireland. Email to hookh@eircom.net and on the web at www.thehook-wexford.com.
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