Taking Back The Cliff Walk

Close to the hedge… SAT7SEPT24

he very first press release from Friends Of The Cliff Walk, issued on Saturday, September 7th 2024…

A new action group has been launched to reclaim the Bray Head Cliff Walk.

Friends of the Cliff Walk started work on Saturday morning cutting back, strimming and generally clearing back growth at the Greystones end of the Cliff Walk.

Kelly, Dwyer, Murtagh & Flynn at your service

“Patience has worn thin,” said one of the group’s core activists, local businessman Dermod Dwyer. “If the Cliff Walk was in west Clare or in Killarney or Westport – where local communities and businesses depended on it – do we honestly think the local people and councils would have left it closed for 3 years? No way.”

Some 350,000 used the walk annually prior to its closure over three years ago by Wicklow County Council. Barriers were erected after a rock fall near Bray and path slippage on the Greystones side.

However, people have continued to use the walk by climbing over the barriers, even though the Council has signs directing walkers to the Windgates road footpath.

Other core members of the Friends group are retired journalist and author Peter Murtagh, local businessman Donal Flynn, whose sons run the Happy Pear outlet in Greystones, and fitness coach Adam Kelly, of Pura Vida.

And they’re all looking for rubble. And trouble.

The four cut back and cleared about 100 meters of the path, from the Grove Dart level crossing towards Bray Head, and intend to return next Saturday morning.

“We got an enthusiastic response from walkers this morning,” said Murtagh, “many of whom said they’d like to join us and lend a hand — which is great.

“We intend to carry on along the walk for as far as we can, clearing and cutting back and making it properly accessible again.”

You can find out more about Friends Of The Cliff Walk here, get in touch by email here, and take a hike through our Cliff Walk archives here.