The Kellys have been operating a business here for 130 years. Hotel managing director Bill Kelly represents the fourth generation to run the hotel, with members of the fifth also involved. <\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely it is closer than it was,\u201d he says of the Irish Sea\u2019s proximity to the hotel. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the title maps, it would bring us out another 50 or 60 metres from where we are today.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/UFVF4MDGERFKNAOCXY5MWBP5AQ.jpeg\")
Bill Kelly on a rear balcony overlooking the Irish Sea at Kelly’s Hotel in Rosslare Strand. Photograph: Steven Carroll <\/p>\n
Kelly stops in a corridor to highlight a set of paintings showing how much wider (and farther away) the beach to the rear of the hotel was in the late 19th century. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable the beach that was there,\u201d he says looking at one, adding that car and horse races were staged on the wide strand back then. <\/p>\n
Today, you would do well to perform a three-point-turn in a car. <\/p>\n
Kelly believes \u201cmost of the real heavy erosion\u201d happened in the 1950s and 1970s after the sea\u2019s movements were shifted by the extensive work carried out to develop another local asset several kilometres south of the hotel: Rosslare Europort.<\/p>\n
![\"Billy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6UST6UAXKZC5LK4A2BIVDV23N4.jpeg\")
Billy Kell on the heavily eroded bank separating Kelly’s Hotel from the beach at Rosslare Strand. Photograph: Steven Carroll <\/p>\n
\u201cIt stopped the supply of sand to Rosslare [Strand],\u201d he says, noting how a beach \u201cthat didn\u2019t exist when we were kids\u201d has developed to the far side of the port. <\/p>\n
Coastal erosion and Co Wexford are no strangers. Local authors John Banville and Colm T\u00f3ib\u00edn both reference the phenomenon in their works, with the former writing in his Booker Prize-winning novel The Sea, set in a fictionalised version of Rosslare Strand: \u201cLate in the evening it was and I had swum the distance \u2013 what a hundred, two hundred yards \u2013 between two of the green-slimed concrete groynes that long ago had been thrown into the sea in a vain attempt to halt the erosion of the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
There remains plenty of evidence along Rosslare Strand of those attempts. Rows of timber groynes designed to hold sand in place pop up at intervals and sections of rock revetments \u2013 boulders piled together to break the waves \u2013 appear to have failed in their task about 1km from the hotel. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IYNVYDOZBJB6XEQWEBM3ZVDBQA.jpeg\")
A balcony droops over rock revetments placed on the beach at Rosslare Strand. Photograph: Steven Carroll <\/p>\n
There\u2019s a sad looking wooden balcony drooping down behind a holiday home and Kelly points out a set of steps buckled by the elements that he used to walk down when going swimming last year. \u201cShocking, isn\u2019t it?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Some mitigation efforts have been successful. In 1994, rock groynes were added to the beach and thousands of tonnes of sand were pumped back towards it, which Kelly says provided protection for many years. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe higher the level of the beach, the further the waves break from the shore and the less it affects the shoreline itself in terms of erosion,\u201d he says, adding that this should be done every five years and \u201cnot every 30 years\u201d as is the case now. <\/p>\n
He believes that building rock revetments causes a lowering of the beach level and \u201ccreates greater erosion of the coastline\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be trying to work with nature, not work against nature,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
About 20km southwest of Rosslare Strand, erosion is having an impact on another enterprise. Dairy and horses are the mainstays for John Byrne, whose family has farmed at Ballygrangans in Kilmore for more than a century. <\/p>\n
After a drive down a winding track from his yard, Byrne stops on a headland overlooking the Celtic Sea and the Saltee Islands. He used to be able to walk on to the beach, but there\u2019s a steep drop down these days. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was lovely. We used to bring the cows along the beach when it all went way out. We used to have it fenced and a gateway,\u201d he says. \u201cWe can\u2019t get down on to the beach now.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/XTQHRMZYWBF5XBYZ4GTTUQBO6I.jpeg\")
John Byrne on the edge of his farmland at Ballygrangans, Kilmore, Co Wexford. Photograph: Steven Carroll <\/p>\n
Byrne has had to redo the track around the boundary of his land four times in recent years due to the force of the sea eating farther into his fields. <\/p>\n
\u201cOnly last week a cow went over it there. Luckily enough she didn\u2019t hurt herself, but I can\u2019t get her up here at Ballygrangans now because the slip is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how much land he reckons he has lost, Byrne says: \u201cAh janey, it\u2019s a lot.\u201d <\/p>\n
Does it run to acres?<\/p>\n
\u201cOh absolutely, if you measure that stretch,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He points towards a large rock on the beach, roughly 30m away. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou see that rock there? It was in the bank, in the land. The bare tip of that was exposed for a long time and now it\u2019s there on its own,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The rate of erosion accelerated \u201cfrom 2014 onwards\u201d, Byrne says, and since then \u201cthe amount of land breaking away every year is terrible\u201d. <\/p>\n
A short distance up the beach at Bastardstown, rock revetments have been installed to protect homes coming ever closer to the edge. <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/NEWHCOINZBAADHHOMTYLKVRHUY.jpeg\")
The heavily eroded coastline at Ballygrangans, Kilmore looking towards Bastardstown. Photograph: Steven Carroll <\/p>\n
Asked if anything has been done to defend his land, Byrne replies: \u201cNothing, nothing … There\u2019s nobody protecting my land for me, that\u2019s one sure thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wexford County Council deputy chief executive Eamonn Hore says the combination of rising sea levels and more severe storms battering the sandy coastline has led to a noticeable \u201cacceleration in erosion over the last couple of years\u201d.<\/p>\n
With more than a third of the county\u2019s coast at risk, it leaves the local authority having to prioritise where and what it is willing to defend. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe priority would be people\u2019s homes, roads, basically buildings, and then after that the priority drops,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is going to be very difficult to look after just pure farmland because the cost of protecting it usually outweighs the value of the land.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, we protect villages, urban areas, that\u2019s why there\u2019s been so much protection done in Rosslare Strand. Millions have been spent over the years and it warrants it because of the value of the assets down there: properties and tourism.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kelly accepts Rosslare has had its share of minor protection works carried out, but he has been in contact with the Office of Public Works (OPW) about the slow pace of the overall Rosslare Coastal Erosion and Flood Relief Scheme. <\/p>\n
A study was completed in 2019 and a five-stage plan set out. It remains at stage one and, subject to planning consent, the OPW told Kelly works should start in the final quarter of 2028 with \u201csubstantial completion\u201d pencilled in for late 2030. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the current rate of coastal erosion, we simply do not have the luxury of time,\u201d Kelly stated in his letter to the OPW. \u201cBy the projected completion date of 2030, significant sections of the beach may already be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/XHLITXLSGFBZLKIH52NLN6RJ3Q.jpeg\")
A buckled set of steps that Bill Kelly used to walk down to access the beach at Rosslare Strand just a year ago. Photograph: Steven Carroll <\/p>\n
Hore says processes such as environmental assessments, screening and planning must be followed and this \u201capplies to almost any major project we do, whether it\u2019s a road or coastal protection\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese major projects tend to take a lot of time,\u201d he says, noting that the sums available for less complicated works have been more than doubled by the OPW to \u20ac2 million. <\/p>\n