About County Waterford
County Waterford combines Ireland's oldest city with one of its most dramatic coastlines, the Copper Coast and the remote Hook Peninsula stretch into the Celtic Sea with notable scenic beauty. Waterford city was founded by the Vikings in 914 AD and has been continuously inhabited ever since, its medieval core one of the best preserved in Ireland.
History
Waterford was the most important port in medieval Ireland after Dublin, its wine trade with France and Spain making it very wealthy. The Munster Blackwater valley was the setting for some of the most violent episodes of the Elizabethan conquest. Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene on a Waterford estate while the county around him was devastated by war and famine.
How Waterford families left Ireland
Waterford port was a major departure point for the entire south of Ireland throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Many Newfoundland families trace their origins to Waterford, the fishing fleets that crossed the Atlantic stopped in Waterford to crew up, and many men never returned. The Waterford-Newfoundland connection remains one of the most distinctive in the Irish diaspora.
Places worth visiting in County Waterford
- Reginald's Tower, the Viking tower on the Waterford quayside, the oldest civic building in Ireland
- The Medieval Museum, housing two of Ireland's greatest medieval treasures at the centre of the Viking triangle
- Hook Lighthouse, the oldest operational lighthouse in the world, standing on the hook of Hook Head
- Lismore Castle and Gardens, the notable castle on the Blackwater, set in one of Ireland's finest gardens
Is your surname from County Waterford?
Enter your Irish family name and we will tell you whether it is connected to Waterford, and build you a personalised Heritage Package for your visit.
Trace your surname →