Tramore is where Waterford goes to the seaside, and it has been doing so for a very long time. The town of about nine thousand sits on the south coast of Ireland, eleven kilometres from Waterford city, around a wide bay with a long sandy strand and a back-strand of dunes and tidal flats. There is an old amusement park, a promenade, surf schools and the kind of seaside cafe where the chips come in paper. For a rider setting off along the Copper Coast, it is a friendly place to start: big enough for fuel, a proper breakfast and a last look at the forecast.
The name comes from the Irish Trá Mhór, the big strand, and the bay is the reason. Surfers use the beach in all weathers, and the Atlantic swell can be impressive. On the headlands you will see three tall white pillars, the Metal Man and two companions, built in the early nineteenth century as a warning to sailors after a terrible shipwreck in the bay. Local legend adds that a girl who hops three times around the Metal Man's base will be married within a year.
The riding leads west along the coast road toward Annestown, Bunmahon and Stradbally, and what makes it good is the mix: narrow lanes lined with fuchsia hedges and stone walls, sudden drops to coves, open clifftops with the sea shining below. The surface is typical Irish coastal tarmac, which means patchy in places, with gravel at gateways and mud near farms. Tractors and cyclists are common, and so is rain, which can sweep in from the Atlantic with no warning. Pack waterproofs even when the morning is bright.
Why is it called the Copper Coast? Because these cliffs were mined for copper in the nineteenth century, with engine houses still standing on the headlands, and the whole region is a UNESCO Global Geopark for its volcanic rocks and fossils. Practical things are simple in Tramore: filling stations, bakeries, seafront cafes, and fish and chips that are properly fresh. Go in May or June if you can, when the evenings are long and the gorse is yellow on the cliffs.