Today’s picture in the Spring sunshine shows Courtown Harbour returning to normal for the tourism season.

The water is back – three metres at high tide, two metres high at low tide – and the boats are bobbing up and down, and a general sense of normality has returned to Courtown Harbour, and according to local Cllr Robbie Ireton; “Everyone is happy.” So it is all guns blazing for a bumper tourist season!

Last January the Courtown Harbour basin was completely emptied. Many visitors. No water. No boats. And the seagulls were totally confused.

A small team from the Department of Fisheries were in attendance to remove any remaining fish and safely release them back into the sea. Although some locals claim that the otters prevented the escape of a few!
This was the first time the harbour basin has been emptied for repairs and cleaning since 1981. And it became a minor tourist attraction with many people visiting the popular summer resort with an intense interest in what lies beneath the water surface!
Plans to drain the harbour were undertaken last November with the Ounavarra river, the Aughboy river and the entrance to the harbour being damned, but the efforts were washed away by heavy rainfall and, consequently, works on the site were delayed.

HISTORY OF COURTOWN AND THE SEA
In 1824, the whole population of Courtown was organised by the Earl of Courtown demanding the Government to provide harbour facilies so that the fishermen could land their catch.
Plans for the harbour were drawn up by Sir Alexander Nimmo and designed to hold 60 ships of 100 burthen tons each. The contract was awarded to Messrs. O’Hara, Simpson and McGill, and would take two years for construction.
The original estimated cost was £10,000, but by 1846 almost £31,000 had been spent on the harbour.
The south pier was extended in a north easterly direction from Breanogue Head. the south beach was to be cut away from the harbour and the Breanogue river and the Ounavarra river which was to be diverted would provide a backwater.

The site of the lock would be 10 feet under the low water mark and the dock to be 10 feet below ordinary low water for a space of 120 feet in width from the mainland to 600 feet long from the turn of the river above the lock.

Courtown Harbour has endured the elements on many occasions. In 1871, the south pier was washed away in a storm. In 1906, records show that Wexford County Council dealing with silting at the harbour.

An extensive programme of conservation and renovation took place in 1981. In more recent times the development of a marina has been under consideration by Wexford County Council.