During the summer the main Dublin-to-Wexford road is peppered with signs offering strawberries and raspberries for sale. As Christmas approaches the signs have aptly changed to ones for all manner of arts and crafts. Wexford may be well known as a great place for opera but it's also a great place to shop.
The perfect one-stop shop is Westgate Design on Main Street, founded three years ago by Catherine Jordan from Enniscorthy. This is a real cornucopia of lovely things, with everything from wrought-iron work and handmade furniture, to candles, bath oils and hand-painted cards. Catherine stocks all the stalwarts of modern Irish pottery such as Stephen Pearce, but also the work of local craftspeople such as Paul Moloney from Wexford, whose range of pale blue, rustic crockery starts at about £8.99 for a mug. Hats by local milliner Mathias Clock, who worked as a designer in France before coming home to Ireland, will set you back £49.99 and are supplied exclusively to Westgate. An eye for detail here ensures everything is done well, down to wrapping-paper printed with the shop's name.
Just across the road is Barkers, another gift shop with an excellent kitchen section stocking famous international brands such as Denby and Le Creuset. It has an impressive selection of the new John Rocha range of designs for Waterford Glass as well as Polish frosted glass in pretty colours and lovely Ballydougan pottery from Armagh, with a simple design of pale blue sprigs of flowers on a pale background. A nice touch is the children's corner in the kitchen shop, with lots of colourful plates and mugs as well as dinosaur-decorated aprons by Ulster Weavers; at £6.99, good stockingfillers for little chefs.
Wexford has one of the nicest delicatessens anywhere in the country. Behind a beautiful handpainted facade, Greenacres on Selskar Street has a mind-boggling range of exotic nut oils and olive oils as well as a good selection of hampers. For a more permanent gift, Masterpiece on Main Street sells enlarged black-and-white photographs of Wexford's old harbour by Padraig Grant. Mounted and framed in simple black frames: they cost £59.
Wexford is a great place to shop for jewellery. Murphy's Jewellers on Slaney Street specialises in antique jewellery and Orla Murphy is one of the most skilled diamond experts in the country. The shop also stocks modern jewellery with a good range of colourful dressrings and miniature silver perfume bottles on chains for about £20.
If you're looking for Irish artisan jewellery, Kieran O'Driscoll makes silver pendants, earrings and brooches in his shop on Selskar Street. Kieran is working on dream-catcher pendants for Christmas, fashioning small silver pendants wrought with real feathers which are believed by American Indians to filter out bad dreams.
Finally, tucked away on Lower Rowe Street is goldsmith Martin Doyle's tiny shop. Martin has been designing and making gold jewellery for 14 years and can take orders. He also stocks lovely silk chiffon scarves made by local healer Haike Wiehagen.
Boutiques are well represented in Wexford, a favourite being Di- ana Donnelly, which stocks the Fabrice Karel and Caractere collections. Luxury evening wraps are all the rage now and Diana Donnelly has a range of magnificent French chiffon scarves overlaid with velvet in rich chocolate brown and aqua blues and greys for between £60 and £90.
Parking: Car parks at the L&N; Redmond Place and at Crescent Quay.
Lunchstop: The cafe at Westgate Design - try the fish chowder.
Hinterland Hint: Country Crafts in Kilmore Quay was opened seven years ago by Helen Burrell and Bridget Ann Hayes. It sells everything from pottery by Nicholas Mosse and local man Paul Moloney to Chesneau leather as well as showing the paintings of local artists.
