Walking Tour of Ballyhack Graveyard

Starting from the County Council car park in Arthurstown, there will be a narrated walking tour up Church Road to Ballyhack Graveyard, perched high on a hill midway between the two villages and providing breathtaking views of the Waterford Estuary.

Noted as a repository of 500 years of local history and some quirky folklore (including a headstone claiming a man lived to 170), Ballyhack Graveyard contains a touching memorial to 29 American sailors and a local sea captain who were lost in the shipwreck of the Alfred D. Snow in 1888.

Free public access.

The Walking Tour of Ballyhack Graveyard is part of a joint initiative for Heritage Week 2026 by Waterford Estuary Villages Alliance (WEVA). Under Weva, the five traditional fishing villages of the Estuary have come together to confront the threat of heritage loss among other issues.

The villages have been under long-term threat from population decline since the collapse of the fishing industry in the early 2000s and the failure to replace it with alternatives that would help to sustain the communities. With great resilience and self-reliance, the villages have a mission to forge a more sustainable future by preserving and developing their shared heritage as part of a wider economic strategy.