THE BACK STRAND & RABBIT BURROWS 

The Rabbit Burrows located at the end of the three-mile beach in Tramore always fascinated me, as the belief was that a town or village originally existed in the burrow area and is perfectly preserved under these huge mounds of sand but there is little evidence to support this.

Horse racing in Tramore originally began on the strand the first race every recorder on Tramore Strand was in 1792.  A man named Bartholomew Rivers brought many new enterprises to Tramore around the late 1780's he established a fish industry and a brick-making industry in the back strand area and was particularly keen to develop this area thus comes the Placename Riverstown in this area. 

 When part of the back Strand was reclaimed Tramore Horse racing started in 1855, Dog racing and a  Golf links was also situated on the back strand but this was not to last as flooding and violent storms put an end to the race track and Golf links.  In August 1911 the last Race meeting was recorded.

THE METAL MAN

In 1821the metal man was erected at Newtown Head which consisted of three becon towers one with the metal man.  Across the Bay on the Headland of Brownstown Head two becon towers were erected, the reason being to direct ships away from the Bay.

Over the last century Tramore Bay was a graveyard for sailing ships and boats of all sizes.  The Sea Horse accounted for a large loss of life's through a voilent storm on January 30th 1816, 363 lives were lost from the sea horse, a British military transport ship.  

The metal man is made up of a cast iron model of a man with his right arm extending out towards the bay warning ships to keep away from the dangerous rocks. Legend has it that he chants out aloud a rhyme on stormy nights.

 "Keep off, good ship,  Keep off from me, for I'm the rock of misery"