Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk

Welcome to the Bray Head Cliff Walk. You're starting in the seaside town of Bray, at the southern end of Bray promenade, and in front of you lies one of the most spectacular coastal walks in Ireland — a seven-kilometre linear route along the cliffs between Bray and Greystones, with the Irish Sea to your east and the green shoulder of Bray Head rising to your west. The walk is flat, family-friendly, and finishes conveniently at the Greystones DART station — meaning you can walk one way and catch the train back. Allow two hours. Bring a windproof. Watch children near the cliff edge.

Bray itself is an interesting town. In the nineteenth century, it was the premier seaside resort of the east of Ireland — a Victorian Brighton, built specifically to cater for the new middle-class holidaymakers who could, for the first time, reach the coast from Dublin by train. The railway arrived in 1854. The promenade was built in the 1860s. The grand hotels — the International, the Royal Marine, the Strand — opened in the 1870s. For about sixty years, Bray was the summer destination for Dublin society. By the 1950s, with the arrival of cheap package holidays to Spain, the glamour had faded, and Bray went into a long, slow decline. It has been recovering, gradually, since the 1990s, aided by the DART commuter rail line that brought Bray firmly within the Dublin commuter belt.

Set off south along the promenade. The seafront here is a mix of Victorian hotels, fish-and-chip shops, ice-cream parlours, an amusement arcade, and a more recent development of restaurants and cafés. In the high season — July and August — this stretch is busy and loud. In the off-season, it is quiet and in its own way charming. At the south end of the promenade, the path begins to climb.

The climb is gentle but sustained. After about five minutes you reach the first level section, with a stone bench set into the path wall. Stop here. Look back. The whole of Bray promenade is below you, with the Sugar Loaf mountain rising sharply in the background. The Sugar Loaf is, despite appearances, not a volcano. It is a quartzite peak, shaped by glaciation, and it is a visual anchor for the whole of north Wicklow. You'll see it from every high point on the walk.

Continue south. The path now runs along the cliff face, gradually gaining height. The sea to your left is typically a deep blue-green, with the occasional white cap. On clear days, you can see Howth Head, the peninsula that forms the northern arm of Dublin Bay, about thirty kilometres to the north. Further south, on very clear days, you can see the peaks of Snowdonia in Wales, about a hundred and twenty kilometres across the Irish Sea.

About a kilometre along, the path passes the ruins of the old coast road. The original path, cut into the cliff in the 1850s to provide a carriage route between Bray and Greystones, was progressively abandoned as successive storms eroded the cliffs. The present path runs higher up the slope, safer and more scenic. The old road is visible in places below — crumbling tarmac slowly returning to the sea.

You pass a large granite cross mounted on a stone plinth on your right. This is the Bray Head Cross, erected in 1950 to mark the Holy Year. It is a prominent landmark visible from all around Bray. The cross stands sixty metres above the path, and it's accessible by a steep side-trail for those who want to add a detour. If you're on a tight schedule, carry on — the view from the cross is good, but the view from the main path, a few hundred metres further, is better.

At about the halfway mark, the path reaches its highest point. A small wooden bench sits at the edge. Sit on it. The view here is the best on the walk. To the east, open sea and the horizon line curving slightly away. To the south, the coastline of north Wicklow curving down towards Greystones, with the Sugar Loaf and the Great Sugar Loaf behind. To the north, Bray and Killiney Bay. Turn around and look west, and you can see the shoulder of Bray Head itself — a small mountain at two hundred and forty metres, with a well-trodden path up it for those who want a separate short walk another day.

Wildlife. The cliffs at Bray Head are a designated Natural Heritage Area, and they support a significant population of seabirds. You may hear, and occasionally see, fulmars — gull-sized birds with distinctive stiff-winged flight patterns — nesting on the cliffs. Kittiwakes, a smaller gull, nest in summer. Peregrine falcons, the fastest birds in the world, hunt these cliffs. And if you are very lucky, and looking out to sea at the right moment, you may see grey seals or, very occasionally, common dolphins in the bay below.

The path now begins to descend towards Greystones. As you drop, the view of Greystones harbour opens up ahead. Greystones was, a hundred years ago, a small fishing village. Today it is a prosperous commuter town of about twenty thousand people, with a redeveloped harbour, a mile of sandy beach, and an unusually high density of good cafés and restaurants. The Happy Pear, a long-established health-food café run by twin brothers David and Stephen Flynn, is world-famous — they have a cookery book empire and a YouTube channel watched by millions. Their original café is a five-minute walk from the DART station.

The path finishes at the north end of Greystones beach. Walk south along the beach, or through the residential streets above, to the harbour and the DART station. The return train to Bray takes ten minutes. A single fare is a few euro. The DART runs every fifteen to twenty minutes throughout the day.

Thank you for walking with us. Bray to Greystones is one of the great walks in Ireland — easy enough for a family outing, dramatic enough to leave a lasting impression, and conveniently served by the most reliable rail line in the country. Come back in a different season. Come back in a different weather. It never looks the same twice.