Tacumshane or Tacumshin () is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the southeast of

County Wexford County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...

, Ireland. It is located 15 km south of Wexford town.

Name

The official name of the village is Tacumshane. In Irish it is called ''Teach Coimseáin'' (House of Seán). In Yola it is listed as "tagh caam seain", meaning in modern English the "crooked house of John". The name of the village is often pronounced as "Tacumshin" as opposed to "Tacumshane", while the village and parish are spelled "Tacumshane". The lake and

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

are also spelled "Tacumshin", perhaps following more closely the Yola pronunciation, as historically Irish had not been spoken in this part of Wexford since the 11th century where Yola was the de facto language. About two miles away is the townland of Churchtown which was once called Tacumshane. It is where Tacumshane castle stood until it was demolished in 1984 by a local farmer. The village of Tacumshane, today, spans the townlands of Fence and Ballyhiho.

Tacumshane Windmill

The windmill at Tacumshane was built in 1846 by Nicolas Moran and was used until 1936, making it the last windmill in the Ireland to work commercially. The windmill was one of 36 such windmills dotted throughout the

baronies Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

Forth Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotl ...

and

Bargy Bargy is a barony in County Wexford, Ireland. From the 12th century Bargy and the surrounding area, including the barony of Forth, saw extensive Anglo-Norman settlement following the Norman invasion of Ireland. A distinctive Anglic language, ...

. Forth and Bargy had a higher concentration of windmills than other parts of Ireland, and the Tacumshane windmill is the only surviving example of its kind in the country. It was renovated in the 1950s and is the oldest working windmill in Ireland. Access is managed via the nearby pub, "The Millhouse Bar".

Lake

Tacumshin Lake Tacumshin Lake () is a lake in Tacumshane, in the southeast of County Wexford, Ireland. It is designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA) under the EU Bird Directive (EC/79/409) and a Special Area of Conservation by the National Parks and Wil ...

is 1100 acres in size. It is designated a

Special Protection Area A special protection area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and cer ...

(SPA) and a

Special Area of Conservation A special area of conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Cut off from sea since 1972 by a barrier of dune, a tidal system know locally as "the tunnel" was constructed in the 1970s making the lake tidal. A new system was built in the 1990s. Tachumshin Lake is commonly visited by bird watchers and attracts some rare American

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

s in Autumn, as well as internationally important concentrations of Bewick's swans,

Brent geese The brant or brent goose (''Branta bernicla'') is a small goose of the genus ''Branta''. There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on the high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after ...

wigeon The wigeons or widgeons are a group of birds, dabbling ducks currently classified in the genus ''Mareca'' along with two other species. There are three extant species of wigeon, in addition to one recently extinct species. Biology There are ...

oystercatchers The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The e ...

golden plover '' Pluvialis '' is a genus of plovers, a group of wading birds comprising four species that breed in the temperate or Arctic Northern Hemisphere. In breeding plumage, they all have largely black underparts, and golden or silvery upperparts. The ...

and

lapwing Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (Family (biology), family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, ...

Transport

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with the exception of Dublin, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidiary of C ...

route 378 serves Tacumshane on Fridays only and provides a link to and from

Wexford Wexford ( ; archaic Yola dialect, Yola: ''Weiseforthe'') is the county town of County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the ...

. Its terminus is at

Wexford railway station Wexford railway station (O'Hanrahan Station, ) is a railway station located in Wexford Town in County Wexford, Ireland. Description The station is part of the Dublin–Rosslare railway line. It is staffed and fully accessible. It consists of ...

People

* John Barry (1745–1803), is sometimes credited as the "Father of the American Navy". Born in a rented thatched farmstead, in the

of Ballysampson, he emigrated in the 1760s and was appointed a captain in the Continental Navy in December 1775. *

John Meyler John Meyler (born 1956) is an Irish hurling manager and former selector, association footballer, Gaelic footballer and hurler who is currently the manager of kilmoyley. He has formerly managed the Kerry, Wexford, Carlow and Cork senior hurling ...

(born 1956 in Tacumshane) is an Irish

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

manager and former player. He played hurling with his local clubs Our Lady's Island and St. Finbarr's and with the Wexford and Cork senior inter-county teams from 1973 until 1987. Meyler later managed several inter-county teams.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Tacumshane entry in Samuel Lewis's 1837 ''Topographical Dictionary of Ireland''

Tacumshane Windmill on Meyler's Millhouse Bar and Restaurant website
Towns and villages in County Wexford