Overview
Between October and April, Greenland white-fronted geese winter on the farmland of the North Slob next door and roost around Wexford Harbour, pouring back in around dusk. If you come in winter, the public hides at Wexford Wildfowl Reserve are the place to watch the birds from cover, so check their closing time first.
The rest of the year is quieter, and the draw is the walk: a marked loop through pine woods planted on an old sand spit just north-east of Wexford town. The reserve carries every designation going, including Ramsar wetland, Special Area of Conservation and Special Protection Area, but on the ground it is simply woods, dunes and a long shell-sand coast.
Getting there and parking
The Raven Wood Loop starts at the signed Raven Wood car park at the trailhead, behind Curracloe. Use that car park rather than parking on verges or in gateways. The Sport Ireland trail page has the trailhead details. This is a reserve with no staffed visitor centre, so check what is open before you set out, and bring your own water and snacks.
The walk
Sport Ireland lists the Raven Wood Loop at 4.7 km and around an hour and a half. Start at the Raven Wood car park and follow the blue arrows on brown markers, and stay on the marked paths through the reserve. Keep dogs on leads.
The trail opens under mature pines, soft and sheltered underfoot. Beyond the loop the trees thin and the ground gives way to dunes and salt-marsh lagoons, and the wide shell-sand shore of Curracloe lies beyond. Keep to the marked route, and avoid walking out onto exposed sandbars or disturbing birds resting near the water.
Wildlife and rare plants
The birdlife is what makes the Raven internationally important. The wintering geese aside, large flocks of waders roost here, little terns nest on the shell beaches at the south end, and crossbills work the pine cones overhead. Resting and nesting birds are easily disturbed, so give them room.
The woods are also home to native red squirrels, which do well on the pine seed the greys can’t use; the resident pine martens keep grey numbers down too. Under the dunes grow round-leaved wintergreen, sand sedge and lesser centaury. In 2021 the ivy mining bee was recorded here for the first time in Ireland, a small thing, but the kind of detail that tells you how much this stretch of coast is doing.
Where to watch wintering birds
For a closer view from cover, visit the public hides at Wexford Wildfowl Reserve. It is a separate stop from the Raven, with free entry and gates that close at 5pm. Keep off the sea wall, and check the reserve’s latest visitor information before setting out.
A spit that stopped being a spit
The Raven began as a long, narrow sand spit sheltering the mouth of Wexford Harbour. In the mid-1880s the reclamation of the neighbouring North Slob for farmland closed off its western side and landlocked the dunes. The Toole family of nearby Curracloe House planted the first trees in the 1800s; when the State bought the land in 1930, the Parks & Wildlife Service began planting conifers in earnest, mostly Corsican pine, with Douglas fir, Scots and Monterey pine, to hold the sand against erosion. Native grey willow, burnet rose and sycamore have since crept back along the edges. The site became a national nature reserve in 1983 and a Ramsar wetland in 1986.
Know before you go
- Dogs on leads to protect ground-nesting birds and other wildlife.
- Stay on the marked paths.
- Winter and early spring are for the geese; late summer for the warm weather and busy red squirrels.
The Raven pairs neatly with the nearby Wexford Wildfowl Reserve on the same stretch of the Slob, or with a wander round Wexford town afterwards.