AttractionModerate1 to 2 hours from the town

The Metal Man, Great Newtown Head

About

Five beacon towers mark the mouth of Tramore Bay: three on Great Newtown Head and two across the water on Brownstown Head. They were built for the Ballast Board between 1820 and 1824 after a run of wrecks, not, as is usually said, by Lloyd's of London, which the local historians at Tramore of Yore have shown has no documentary basis. On the middle tower of the three stands a twelve-foot cast-iron sailor designed by the Cork sculptor Thomas Kirk, landed at Waterford in September 1823. He points away from the coast, not towards Waterford Harbour: a newspaper reported that wrong in 1823 and corrected itself the following week, and the error has outlived the correction. Tradition has it that a woman who hops three times around the pillar will have a proposal inside the year.

Photos

Highlights

✓Three pillars here and two visible across the bay on Brownstown Head
✓A cast-iron figure by Thomas Kirk, who also made the Nelson Pillar statue
✓Reached on foot from the Newtown Cove end of the Cliff Road
✓Open cliff with no barrier at the edge

Tips

→This is unfenced cliff top on open ground. Keep well back from the edge and keep dogs on a lead.
→Go on a clear day so you can pick out the two Brownstown pillars on the far side of the bay.
→There is no parking at the head itself; park at Newtown Cove and walk.