Ballast Bank

Sand was the favoured material and was taken from the River Slaney delivered to the quays and wharves in a small boat called a gabard.

In the report, Messrs Coghlan, Fanning and Armstrong advised of the condition of the site stating that necessary repairs would cost less than £100.

Under a Royal Assent in 1846, permission was given to make alterations and repairs to the harbour, including the removal of the Ballast Bank.

During the review, Patrick Byrne, a harbour pilot gave the opinion that the Ballast Bank impacted on the tides.

In 2009 the Ballast Bank was added to the Record of Protected Structures of County Wexford and assigned reference number WBC019.

[11] In doing so, Wexford County Council provided the structure legal protection under Section 51 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000.

Wexford playwright Billy Roche references the Ballast Bank in his work, naming it Useless Island in his semi-autobiographical novel Tumbling Down.

[21] In 2019, a portrait by artist Tony Robinson of the playwright, commissioned by Wexford Arts Centre, features Roche with the Ballast Bank in the background.