Vessels that can take to the mud will find complete protection from all conditions. The wide, unhindered and well-marked Waterford Harbour estuary provides safe access night or day and at any stage of the tide, but final access will require a sufficient rise of tide.
Keyfacts for Passage East
Facilities
Nature
Considerations
Protected sectors
Approaches
Shelter
Last modified
January 22nd 2021 Summary* Restrictions apply
A completely protected location with straightforward access.Facilities
Nature
Considerations
Position and approaches
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Haven position
52° 14.426' N, 006° 58.336' WThe pierhead at the entrance.
What is the initial fix?
The following Passage East Initial Fix will set up a final approach:
52° 14.470' N, 006° 58.324' W
This is 100 metres outside and directly north of the entrance to the harbour. What are the key points of the approach?
Offshore details are available in southeastern Ireland’s coastal overview for Rosslare Harbour to Cork Harbour . Seaward approaches, along with the run up the harbour, are covered in the Port of Waterford entry.
Not what you need?
Click the 'Next' and 'Previous' buttons to progress through neighbouring havens in a coastal 'clockwise' or 'anti-clockwise' sequence. Below are the ten nearest havens to Passage East for your convenience.
Ten nearest havens by straight line charted distance and bearing:
- Ballyhack - 0.3 nautical miles NNE
- Arthurstown - 0.7 nautical miles E
- Seedes Bank - 0.9 nautical miles NNW
- Buttermilk Point - 1.3 nautical miles NNW
- Duncannon - 1.7 nautical miles SE
- Cheekpoint - 2.1 nautical miles NNW
- Little Island - 3.5 nautical miles W
- Dollar Bay - 3.5 nautical miles SE
- Creadan Head - 3.6 nautical miles SSE
- Templetown Bay - 4.5 nautical miles SSE
These havens are ordered by straight line charted distance and bearing, and can be reordered by compass direction or coastal sequence:
- Ballyhack - 0.3 miles NNE
- Arthurstown - 0.7 miles E
- Seedes Bank - 0.9 miles NNW
- Buttermilk Point - 1.3 miles NNW
- Duncannon - 1.7 miles SE
- Cheekpoint - 2.1 miles NNW
- Little Island - 3.5 miles W
- Dollar Bay - 3.5 miles SE
- Creadan Head - 3.6 miles SSE
- Templetown Bay - 4.5 miles SSE
Chart
What's the story here?
Passage East
Image: Michael Harpur
Image: Michael Harpur
Passage East is a historic village built on the hillside of the River Suir’s western shore. It is located about 7 miles within Waterford Harbour and has a small drying quay on the north side of the village. The village serves as the western terminus for the river ferry from Ballyhack.
The drying Passage East Harbour
Image: Michael Harpur
Image: Michael Harpur
This is a drying harbour and only suitable for vessels that can take to the mud. Leisure craft may anchor close northwest of the harbour, but the berth is uncomfortable due to the velocity the tidal streams attain here in the narrowest part of the river. A vessel could not be left unattended, and handling a tender would be difficult if not perilous at times.
How to get in?
The ferry passing from Passage East to Ballyhack
Image: Michael Harpur
Image: Michael Harpur
Use the Port of Waterford for details of seaward approaches, entry to Waterford Harbour and the run up the estuary. From Passage Spit the facing villages of Passage East and Ballyhack will be seen, and the pattern of the regular ferry crossing between them can be estimated. The ferry operates within very tight margins and should not be impeded.
The harbour entrance
Image: Michael Harpur
Image: Michael Harpur
From the initial fix, set over the entrance, make a note of the run of the current and proceed in accordingly.
Passage East and its three quays
Image: Michael Harpur
Image: Michael Harpur
Berth alongside one of the three main quays – Boathouse Quay, Hackett's Quay or Middle Quay – or raft up if no wall space is available.
Boats alongside Passage East
Image: Michael Harpur
Image: Michael Harpur
Vessels awaiting sufficient rise of the tide to enter can anchor to the northeast of the harbour, but not in the vicinity of the ferry. This should only be a short-stay anchorage as a totally secure long-term anchorage is available 400 metres to the north, over the Seedes Bank .
If intending to anchor, do not do so in such a fashion that the vessel could swing out and encroach upon the shipping channel. The main channel runs close to the west bank along here, as it does all the way to Hell Point, and very little movement is required for a vessel to cause an obstruction. Because of this, boats that anchor here are often requested to move across to the Seedes Bank by the harbourmaster.
Why visit here?
Passage East takes its name from the Irish An Pasáiste, describing ‘a piece of water one can swim across’ and translating as ‘the passage’. The name stems directly from the role it has played from antiquity to the present day of providing a ferry service eastward to Ballyhack, on the opposite, eastern County Wexford side of the estuary.Bayeux Tapestry depiction of a Norman army in the field
Image: Public Domain
Image: Public Domain
The original medieval settlement at Passage East centred on a fort designed to defend the waterways approaching Waterford. But the small harbour would play a central part in the nation’s turning point in 1170 during the Norman Invasion of Ireland.
Depiction of the Marriage of Aoife and Strongbow
Image: Public Domain
Image: Public Domain
This was a two-stage process, which began on May 1, 1169, when a force of loosely associated Norman knights landed near Bannow Bay. They were acting in support of Diarmait Mac Murchada, the ousted King of Leinster. The Passage East landing the following year, at what was then known simply as ‘The Passage’, was part of the second wave and the fifth of the landing parties that bore down on Ireland in 1170. It was here that the leader of the invasion, the Earl of Pembroke Richard de Clare, better known as Strongbow, landed with 200 knights and 1,000 men. He then combined his forces with those of Raymond FitzWilliam le Gros, who led the fourth landing (on May 1, 1170), on Baginbun, with 100 heavily armoured Norman, Welsh and Flemish mercenary knights. The combined armies of Strongbow and le Gros then advanced towards the walled city of Waterford and the conquest of Ireland began in earnest.
Bayeux Tapestry depiction of knight transport ships
Image: Public Domain
Image: Public Domain
Two attacks on the city were repulsed before their joint forces found a weak spot in the walls to enter and capture the town. Strongbow’s capture of Waterford consolidated the Cambro-Norman foothold in Ireland and his next objective was to take command of the province of Leinster by taking the strategic, political and trade centre of Dublin. Dublin fell just as quickly and the swift Cambro-Norman military takeover of the southeast of Ireland was to the largest part complete. Strongbow then married Diarmait’s daughter, Aoife, to secure the political takeover by being named as heir to the Kingdom of Leinster. Strongbow then set about settling fellow Welshmen in the region.
King Henry II
Image: Public Domain
Fearing Strongbow’s designs to create a breakaway Norman kingdom, Henry II (King of England, Wales and northern France) decided he needed to make a decisive move. To quash any such ideas and cement his authority and control over the newly acquired territory, he landed in Passage East in 1171 with an army of 4,000 men, including 500 knights. This was an enormous show of force by any measure – 500 knights would mean at least 500 horses, and most knights took at least two horses, along with others for carrying supplies and arms, and drawing carts etc. The horses were transported in boats that would have been beached and unloaded via the stern called Taride. It is likely that their capacity then was between 12 and 30 horses per ship. As such, historians speculate that the fleet Henry II took to Ireland amounted to more than 400 ships. Leaving nothing to chance alongside the show of force, he also carried papal authority for his conquest. Most significantly, Henry was the first King of England to set foot on Irish soil and it marked the beginning of 800 years of English, and later British, rule in Ireland. Image: Public Domain
After the invasion, the Normans noted the importance of Passage East. It was fortified with the ‘Castle of Passage’ to command the harbour and shipping up and down the important river. The small outpost continued to reflect the turning points of the nation’s history. ‘The Garrison’ as it was called in Medieval times, along with Ballyhack Castle, was attacked by Cromwell's New Model Army in 1649. Legend has it that the phrase by hook or by crook was coined by Oliver Cromwell when he was deciding whether to approach Waterford Harbour via Hook Head or the village of Crooke adjacent to Passage East on the opposite side of the estuary.
Remains of the Geneva Barracks
Image: RTG via CC ASA 4.0
Image: RTG via CC ASA 4.0
At the time, the area belonged to the defender of Faithlegg, on Cheekpoint, Sir P Aylward, whose family had held the area as an unbroken line since the first Norman land grants. The castle was reduced to rubble by his serving officer General William Bolton, who dismantled its tower after taking it. Afterwards, Oliver Cromwell dispossessed the Aylward family of their lands and gave the estate to Bolton. In 1690, after his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, it was from here that King James fled Ireland. Likewise, the Geneva Barracks was erected in the 18th-century to house a community of Swiss silver workers who had to leave their homeland because of their Huguenot sympathies. The utopian colony failed and the building played a part in the aftermath of the 1798 United Irishmen Revolt: it was turned into a notorious prison and then point of departure for thousands of rebels that were transported out of the country.
Constrained by a high escarpment, Passage East has changed little since 1905
Image: Public Domain
Image: Public Domain
Today the peaceful, charming fishing village of Passage East is very much removed from any drama, although History has left behind a distinctive architecture. It is home to a small but thriving fishing industry, which provides employment for a number of local people. The village is small and set into the physical constraints imposed by the location’s high escarpment. It has two open squares, surrounding streets and three main quays. There is a nice, long beach leading to the south that provides for great fishing.
Leisure boats in Passage East Harbour
Image: Michael Harpur
Image: Michael Harpur
For the passing boater, it has good pubs and a reportedly good Chinese restaurant. The ferry that passes back and forth to Ballyhack is situated on the Waterford to Rosslare Europort road. The Passage East side of the river is less than 10km away from Waterford International airport and the city of Waterford is a 20-minute taxi ride away.
What facilities are available?
Passage East has no facilities apart from the quays, pubs and small shops.Any security concerns?
As the harbour completely dries, any passer-by can walk out and access your vessel. It is best that you clear the decks and fasten the vessel down if leaving it unattended.With thanks to:
John Carroll, Ballyhack, New Ross, Co. Wexford. Photography with thanks to Michael Harpur.Passage East Ballyhack and vessels navigating the narrows between
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