From the scrubby wilderness on the banks of the deep river Barrow, the town by 1250 was to become on the most successful and wealthy in Ireland.

With a bridge linking the routes to Waterford, and the great arterial waterways of the Nore and the Barrow facilitating shipping from the sea to as far north as Athy, Ros became the heart of capitalist Leinster; it's international banking and trading centre and one of the country's most bustling sea ports. As many as 400 ships were known to have berthed in the harbour at any one time.

Exports from the port included wool and hides bound for Flanders, corn and light horses for the armies of the Angevin Kings, birds of prey and hunting dogs. Irish shaggy mantles were also exported in great quantity.

From overseas as far away as Lubeck, Gascony and Toledo came quantities of salt, and steel and vast amounts of wine. There was also a considerable trade in Levantine luxury goods; jewellery, silks, tapestries and spices.

For the first 50 years of it's existence this most prosperous town - laid out in the classic Norman grid system - was almost uniquely without the protection of a town wall; such was the peaceful state of the province at the time.

In 1265 a wall about a mile and a half long was constructed amidst much ceremony and festivity. Of it's five gates there are two which still maintain some fragile presence, the Earl's Gate and the Three Bullet Gate - both to the east of t he town.

The only built remains of this once vibrant Norman town is the beautiful 13th Century Church of St. Mary's overlooking the river. The strongest evidence in the area of Norman existence are the Norman names of the inhabitants of the town: Barry, Power, Burke, Fitzhenry, Butler, Keating, Pettit, Fitzgerald and Sutton, to name but a few. All these names bear witness to the stirring events of 1207 and are the strongest link with our Norman past.