St. Hubert's stag and the crucifix atop the medieval tower at CurraghmoreOpening meets are always special, but when it is at Curraghmore for the Waterford Foxhounds, and a lawn meet to boot, it goes beyond special. Indeed, the hunt was originally known as the Curraghmore Hounds. The estate is steeped in all things of the horse. Even as we drove in the long avenue (it must be more than a mile), race horses were being unboxed and tacked up on the gallops and schooling grounds which are widely used by trainers in that part of the country.

Curraghmore is the historic home of the Ninth Marquis of Waterford. His ancestors through his maternal line, the de la Poers (Power), came to Ireland from Wales with Strongbow and the Normans around 1170—about a century after the Norman invasion of England and about 320 years before Columbus ‘discovered’ the New World.