Woodenbridge
Woodenbridge
Village in County Wicklow, Ireland
Woodenbridge (Irish: an Droichead Adhmaid)[1] is a small village in County Wicklow, Ireland. It lies between Arklow and Avoca, at the meeting of the Avoca, Aughrim and Goldmine rivers. The village is located at the junction of the R747 and R752 roads. The R747 crosses the Aughrim on the stone bridge which is still called "Wooden Bridge".
Woodenbridge
An Droichead Adhmaid | |
|---|---|
Village | |
The R747 over the Aughrim River, the former "Woodenbridge" | |
| Coordinates: 52°50′05″N 6°14′40″W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Leinster |
| County | County Wicklow |
| Elevation | 25 m (82 ft) |
| Time zone | UTC+0 (WET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-1 (IST (WEST)) |
The village was historically called Garrynagowlan, Garragowlan and Garnagowlan (from Irish Garrán an Ghabhláin, meaning "grove of the little forks") after the townland it occupies.[1][2]
Woodenbridge Golf Course is located here,[3] as are two hotels. The entire golf course was flooded to a depth of several feet during Hurricane Charley in August 1986, which also destroyed a number of bridges over the River Avoca and its tributaries.
The Woodenbridge Hotel & Lodge was established in 1608.[4] Future Taoiseach and President Éamon de Valera and Sinéad de Valera stayed at the hotel on their honeymoon in 1910.[5]
The remains of an abandoned railway station on the mainline railway between Dublin and Rosslare Harbour can be seen beside the golf course. Woodenbridge railway station opened on 22 May 1865 and finally closed on 30 March 1964.[6] Bus Éireann route 133 serves Woodenbridge four times a day on weekdays and twice on Sundays linking it to Arklow, Avoca, Rathdrum, Wicklow and Dublin.[7]
At Woodenbridge on 24 September 1914, John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, addressed a muster of the Irish Volunteers, exhorting them to join the British Army. This precipitated a split between the majority "National Volunteers" who supported Redmond and of whom many enlisted, and the rump "Irish Volunteers", influenced by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which led the Easter Rising and evolved into the Irish Republican Army.[8]
- "Woodenbridge Hotel - About Us". Woodenbridge Hotel. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
- "Woodenbridge station" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 25 November 2007.
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 June 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - Finnan, Joseph P. (2004). John Redmond and Irish Unity, 1912-1918. Syracuse University Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-8156-3043-2. Retrieved 15 May 2020 – via Google Books.