Ireland day 1109. Friday 11 October 2024- Kennedy
Today’s summary | Drove down to Co Wexford to visit the JFK Arboretum and the Kennedy Homestead near the village of New Ross. Very interesting and a beautiful day though many of the facilities at the Arboretum were closed. Video call with family in Canada in the evening | ||||
Today’s weather | Beautifully dry bright and sunny all day. A perfect Autumn day. Light westerly wind. Appx 11c | ||||
Today’s overview location (The red mark shows the location of our route) |
Close-up location (The red line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): JFK Arboretum |
Commentary
Many people know that John F Kennedy had Irish heritage, but I for one certainly didn’t know that all eight of his great grandparents were in fact Irish. One of these great grandparents – Patrick – seems to be the best known. This is probably because he carried the Kennedy name, and also because some of his family still live in the same homestead as Patrick left from when he headed off to Boston at the height of the Famine in 1848. It’s situated near the settlement of New Ross in Co. Wexford.
Our interest in Wexford was actually piqued last night at the Botanical lecture. We kept hearing the “JFK Arboretum” being mentioned but didn’t know anything about it. After a bit of research, it turned out that it is a big satellite garden of the Botanics and is also managed from the HQ in Glasnevin. We discovered that it was situated in Co Wexford, about at 2½ hour drive down the motorway from here, and not that far from Rosslare.
So over our morning cup of tea, we made a spur of the minute decision to drive down today and have a look. In fact we realised that if we left more or less straight away, we would just make it in time for a 12 noon tour. We grabbed our things, bundled ourselves into the car and set off. We didn’t have time for breakfast but were reassured that there was a café at the arboretum so we could catch up later.
We were slow to get round the M50 in the middle of rush hour, but were able to pick up speed on the M11 and just made it to the entrance to the arboretum for 12:00. That’s where the problems started. The first thing we saw was a sign saying “tours cancelled today” – which was a disappointment. Nevertheless we thought we could ask one of the members of staff to give us some background.
The second problem was that there was actually nobody at all on duty in this massive site (it’s the second largest park in Ireland after Phoenix park) . Eventually after a ringing a well-hidden bell tucked away in a corner, Val did manage to rouse a bleary-eyed attendant from his tea break and he did give us bit of a potted history.
Oh well we thought we will get a cup of coffee and some belated breakfast in the café and work out our own self-guided tour. Except of course the café was closed, like everything else it seemed, so we had to go hungry for a while longer.
Anyway, it was a beautiful day so we took ourselves on a loop path round the estate and it was indeed impressive – especially as all the trees are less than sixty years old, though already looking very established. They come from all over Ireland and the rest of the world, and are laid out in beds of related genera. Very interesting to anyone who is a dendrophiliac – as well as to members of the public like us. Once we’d seen everything there was to see, we left the site and drove up the road to the top of the nearby Slieve Coillte, from the top of which the views in all directions were truly stunning.
By this time, Val had done some more googling and, taking no chances this time, booked us a slot on a tour round the nearby Kennedy homestead. The Homestead was only 10 minutes drive away and we weren’t booked in until 4pm, we had just enough time to drop into a pub en route to get something to eat (at last) and a cup of tea.
The Homestead was fascinating, and presented detailed, if varnished, biographies of all the key actors in the Kennedy clan. The homestead (which I think has been extensively rebuilt since Joseph left in 176 years ago) is still occupied by members of the same family. We actually met the current resident – a farmer who went out of his way, as we were driving up the lane to the farmstead, to warn us about an oncoming tractor that would be blocking the road. We had a pleasant chat as he was driving his pickup truck in the opposite direction – little did we know that he was the third cousin of John F Kennedy.
After looking round the exhibition and the homestead itself, we felt we were well imbued in the Kennedy legend, so we left the visitor centre and headed back up the motorway to Dublin – and we were back in Malahide just in time to catch an excellent video call with family in Canada. So a truly transatlantic day today. A few bumps in the road, admittedly, but an altogether worthwhile and very memorable trip of a corner of Ireland that hitherto we really didn’t know very well at all.
Today’s photos (click to enlarge)
Interactive map
(Elevations corrected at GPS Visualizer: Assign DEM elevation data to coordinates )
Max elevation: 93 m
Min elevation: 45 m
Total climbing: 100 m
Total descent: -93 m
Total time: 01:17:19