Abbeyside () is a

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

Dungarvan Dungarvan () is a coastal town and harbour in County Waterford, on the south-east coast of Ireland. Prior to the merger of Waterford County Council with Waterford City Council in 2014, Dungarvan was the county town and administrative centr ...

County Waterford County Waterford ( ga, Contae Phort Láirge) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Waterford. Waterford City and County Council is the local authority for ...

, Ireland. It lies on the east bank of the Colligan River.

History

MacGrath's Castle was a notable landmark in Abbeyside, overlooking Dungarvan Harbour, until it collapsed in January 1916. It was situated at Friar's Walk in Abbeyside, near the Augustinian abbey. It was a six-storey

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strate ...

, reputedly built by the MacGrath family, and labelled MacCragh's Castle in the Civil Survey of 1654. While, as of the mid-18th century, it was still in a "good state of preservation", by the mid-20th century only fragments of the walls remained. These were subsequently removed, and no remnants of the castle remain visible above ground.

Sport

The local GAA club is Abbeyside/Ballinacourty GAA. The club plays both

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of pla ...

and

gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...

and competes in both senior codes in the county. The village also has a local soccer team, Abbeyside AFC, the team plays in the Waterford District league Division 1B, the club's most successful moment came in 2011 winning the 1B division. The club also have a u14 team youths and a division 3 team. Stage 2 of the

1998 Tour de France The 1998 Tour de France was the 85th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race was composed of 21 stages and a prologue. It started on 11 July in Ireland before taking an anti-clockwise route through France to finis ...

passed through Abbeyside.

Notable people

* Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (6 October 1903 – 25 June 1995),

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

and

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make ...

was born in Abbeyside. Walton is known for his work with

John Cockcroft Sir John Douglas Cockcroft, (27 May 1897 – 18 September 1967) was a British physicist who shared with Ernest Walton the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 for splitting the atomic nucleus, and was instrumental in the development of nuclea ...

on the splitting of the atom. The "Walton Causeway Park" in Abbeyside was dedicated in his honour. Walton himself attended the ceremony in 1989. After his death, a plaque was placed on the site of his birthplace in Abbeyside. *

Louis Claude Purser Louis Claude Purser, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (28 September 1854 in Abbeyside – 20 March 1932 in Dublin) was an Irish people, Irish classics, classical scholar. Purser was educated at Midleton College, County Cork,''The New Inte ...

(28 September 1854 – 20 March 1932),

classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, was born here. * Sarah Purser (22 March 1848 - 1943), portrait painter, was raised in Abbeyside.

References

External links

Abbeyside Heritage Archive
{{Authority control Towns and villages in County Waterford Townlands of County Waterford