Before you even arrive at Helvick Pier to visit Sólás na Mara, the beautiful views over Dungarvan Bay on the road out to An Rinn (the Ring peninsula) will set your mind at ease.
The journey is part of the experience of An Rinn – a place where the Irish language is treasured and flourishes, and the local Gaeltacht community is famed for its music and dance.
Cé Helvic, located near the eastern tip of the peninsula, on the southern side of Dungarvan Bay, is one of An Rinn’s most peaceful spots, but Helvick doesn’t take its name from Irish.
Instead ‘Helvic’ (transcribed interchangeably as Heilbhic or Helvick), gives a clue to the Viking influence that shaped the story of Waterford and An Rinn.
A Viking Harbour with a Norse Name
The harbour’s Norse name, Helvic, is one of the few Viking place names to survive in Ireland to the present day. In old Norse, ‘-vic’ means bay. The meaning of the first syllable – ‘hel’ – is uncertain, but it has been linked to the Vikings’ words for ‘bright’, ‘holy’ and ‘health’.
Each one of them seems right for Sólás. The name Helvic captures some of the magic you’ll find here today.
An Unbroken Fishing Tradition
In the wake of the Vikings, Helvick kept its unbroken role as a working fishing harbour through the centuries. Helvick’s fishing industry played a vital role in sustaining the peninsula’s communities during the famine in the 1840s and supporting its recovery.
While, in other areas, hunger, the need to pawn nets, and the lack of money for repairs meant the sea’s bounty was out of reach, the fishermen of An Rinn were able to continue fishing thanks to support from the Quakers and the intervention of a local Protestant clergyman.
The Society of Friends (Quakers) and the local Church of Ireland vicar, the Rev. James Alcock (1805–1893), secured funds for food, boat repairs, and gear, which meant the men could take to sea again. This gave the men and their families security at a time when “misery and starvation prevail[ed] in the surrounding parts of the Union (Workhouse District).”
A Cooperative Spirit – Meitheal Mara na Rinne Teo
While such difficult times did not come again, the fishing industry became tougher for individual fishermen as the 20th century wore on. The building where Sólás na Mara is based was added in the 1980s as part of efforts by local fishermen to improve their selling power and support the survival of their way of life.
Since the 1960s, fishermen along Ireland’s coastline had used co-ops to make a better living from their catch than they each could alone. Our peninsula’s fishermen came together to do the same.
After a long day at sea, the fishermen would turn their boats back to Helvick Harbour to sell their fish fresh at the co-op auction. From here, it was shipped off to restaurants and hotels and far beyond.
When the fishing industry changed, the co-op lost its role. Fishing continued at Helvick, as it does to this day. The opening of our seaweed bathhouse in 2013 has brought an additional energy to Helvick Harbour. But, in its own way, our big idea for seaweed baths wasn’t new at all!
Dungarvan’s Famous Bathhouse
Seaweed baths may be new to Cé Helvic itself, but they have a long tradition on the Waterford coast and on the shores of Dungarvan Bay. We have just moved the concept a little further east…
The Victorians and Edwardians had a great interest in the healing benefits of the sea. Their interest in ‘taking the water’ fostered some of the earliest tourism in Ireland’s Ancient East and along the Waterford coast.
In fact, Dungarvan’s reputation as a spa town was what helped establish it as a tourist destination at the very start of the 20th century. Stokes Bathhouse established a spa in Dungarvan in 1901 which made the town a destination for people looking to improve their health.
Waterford’s bathhouses were popular with middle-class Irish people from nearby Tipperary towns, like Clonmel, and beyond. They headed to the coast in fine weather, to Clonea Beach and Dungarvan Bay, for the good of their health and to take in the fine views.
The Dungarvan bathhouse, and Stokes’ other establishment at Tramore, may not have offered a modern spa experience by our standards, but their baths, which combined indoor and open-air facilities, were certainly ambitious.
Stokes’ spa attracted attention from the Dublin writer C.P. Redmond. He featured their bathhouse in his tourist guidebook where he explained that it was nothing short of the best in Ireland.
He describes “Turkish Baths, Hot and Cold Salt Water Reclining Baths, Shower Baths, Sitz Baths, Spray Baths and Needle Baths.” He added that “A Splendid Salt Water Plunge Bath is attached and the Shampooing Apparatus and Attendance are unexcelled. These baths are second to none in Ireland, and the Sanitary arrangements are perfect.”
The impressive Dungarvan bathhouse, which sat at the end of Davitt’s Quay, remained popular until the 1950s, when an interest in the simple pleasures of the sea waned and people started to think of travelling overseas for their holidays.
Although many natural spas had flourished all along Ireland’s coastline for generations, helping people enjoy salt water and seaweed baths in comfort, very few remained by the late 20th century.
For a while, public bathhouses disappeared entirely from Ireland’s sunny south-east.
Bringing the Baths Back, a Little Further East
It took over 60 years before Sólás na Mara was opened and the baths returned to the Waterford coast, and Dungarvan Bay became home to a spa experience once more. Of course, in the long history of Helvick Harbour, An Rinn, and Waterford’s ancient coastline, those years count as much as a drop in the ocean!
With great support and much-valued funding from the Waterford LEADER Partnership, this once co-op building was transformed into a wellness centre that has revived the Waterford bathhouse tradition and animated Helvick Harbour once again.
Traditional Baths with a Modern Ethos
The baths we have established here have kept the charm and natural feel of Ireland’s traditional bathhouses. Each of our baths has a unique character – regular visitors often have a favourite!
And the steam boxes were made by hand, as David’s training in furniture-making and design was put to good use in the building as it was transformed.
We’ve brought new elements too. Inspired by the European spa philosophy, which draws on nature to create wellness, we’ve added modern therapeutic techniques and treatments alongside our seaweed-infused baths.
But at the heart of Sólás na Mara we’ve kept the soul-restoring experience of ‘taking the water’, and a deep connection to the previous generations of An Rinn people who made their living from the bounty of the sea.
The harbour is now a year-round hub for locals, and for regular visitors from across Ireland, Europe and further afield, who love the space for respite, relaxation, and renewal Cé Helvic offers.
