We had one small car for most of our excursions, and on one overcast, windy afternoon we set out for the Hook Lighthouse at the end of the Hook Peninsula. The seats in the very back of the car you had to fold yourself into, but luckily the twenty-somethings volunteered to do most of the folding. Getting in was a synch compared to getting out.
It is a good long ways out to the point, so it was late afternoon with fading light and wild surf from a ripping wind when we arrived. We were careful not to get too close to the surf, because as many as seven different currents clash off the point, and you never knew where the spray would be coming from next. It was easily strong enough to sweep you off your feet and take you with it back out to sea. Unlike American sites that over-protect the visiting public, at the Hook if you dared the sea the consequences were yours to reckon with.
I spied something at the Hook that I’d never seen before – a dog trailer – which of course makes sense in a country of small cars and many dogs, quite a neat rig!
The Hook is among the oldest lighthouses in the world. It was built by the Earl of Pembroke in the early 13th century to protect his ships headed into the port of New Ross. In its early days the lighthouse was manned by monks who lived at the end of the peninsula. Their job would have been to keep beacon fires burning at the top of the lighthouse. This medieval structure is made from limestone and has four stories connected by a stairway with 115 steps. The first three stories each have a stone fireplace. The upper storey is narrower, built originally for the beacon fire, which was later replaced by a lantern.
Lighthouse keepers replaced the monks in the 16th century, and coal replaced the beacon fire in 1671. A whale oil lantern came next in the 18th century, gas in 1871 and finally, electricity in 1972.
In the 1860’s three buildings were built for the lighthouse keepers. When the light was automated in 1996, these buildings were transformed into a visitors’ center, and the Hook was opened to the public.
It is an incredibly dramatic sight, the black and white, sturdy lighthouse at the end of the land, still there after all these centuries to challenge the sea.
