Friends in high places – with Jim Power TUES3JUNE25
atest press release from Friends of The Cliff Walk, issued on Tuesday, June 3rd 2025…
Speaking at the Greystones Sailing Club today, Power – an economic advisor to the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation and a long-standing financial commentator – estimates that the loss to the economy includes €21 million that would have accrued to the exchequer from taxes.
In Co Wicklow, the estimated losses stand at €14 million, based on annualised spending by walkers of €3.5m.
prior to its closure in early 2021. The closure is now in its fifth year, with no evidence that a reopening is in sight, or that the Council wants the trail to reopen, although it is a Public Right of Way.
This would support 77 jobs in tourism and hospitality in the local area. Assuming an average wage of €20,000, this would equate to a wage injection of €1.54 million into the local economy,” he said at the launch of his report today in Greystones.
Tánaiste Simon Harris set up a Task Force which met in February when he asked the Council to examine “short term [reopening] options . . . as a matter of urgency”, but there has been no follow-up announcement.
1 comment
There are two separate issues on the cliff walk. At the Bray end, the cliffs are rocky and relatively stable. The path itself is fine, but very occasionally a few stones roll down onto it from above. This has always been the way, and there is no solution other than to issue a disclaimer to the public to beware of it. Then spend half an hour cleaning the loose stones off the path when/if it happens.
At the Greystones end the cliffs are made of marl clay, and have always been eroding. When Greystones Marina was being constructed, I reckon the erosion increased to as much as 2 metres per year. During this time the old Gap Bridge and a stone-built culvert (below Darcy’s Field and St Crispins Cell) fell into the sea and disappeared.
The cliff walk at the Greystones end therefore needs to be moved inland every few years, as the sea encroaches. The flip side of this is that Greystones South Beach is growing, because it experiences the opposite effect – deposition instead of erosion. It is noticeable that areas of it, which are now much further from the sea than they used to be, have grown permanent grass and vegetation in recent years, which is actually the early stages of dune formation. An enlightened council could perhaps make some use out of this new land area by granting “concession” licences for small commercial structures eg saunas or ice cream stands. This money would help to offset the cost of cleaning the beach and maintaining the Cliff Walk.
Regarding the next re-routing of the cliff walk inland at the Greystones end, I have heard that one landowner is very amenable, but another is not. If that is the case, then a CPO order is the obvious and only solution. We don’t need endless consultancy reports to tell us that. I was involved with consultants for the feasibility study of a proposed Delgany-Greystones Greenway, which planned a nice green route along the Three Trout Stream via the Charlesland and Archers Wood Estates for pedestrians, bikes, mobility scooters and e-scooters. It would have run between the sea at the southern end of the South Beach all the way to Barry’s bridge at the N11. Also providing an alternative for cyclists to the extremely narrow and dangerous road alongside Delgany Golf Club, which leaves motorists encountering cyclists there with little alternative than to employ an illegal overtaking maneuver across a solid white line.
However it became obvious early on that although WCC were quite happy to draw down the national funding for the feasibility study, they never had any interest in proceeding with the actual Greenway.