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Dear
Visitor,
The history of Bray goes
back into the mists of time and there are many interesting sites and
stories for you to explore. |
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Bray (population about 26,000) is
known as the "Gateway to Wicklow" and is surrounded with pleasant walks
and an environment that nature has endowed with awesome
beauty.
You are invited to hasten slowly, on the trail, like
the Dargle river that flows gently through the town. It is the longest
established seaside town in the country. It has a safe beach
of sand and shingle to walk on, which is over 1.6km (1 mile)
long, fronted by a spacious esplanade. The scene is dominated
by Bray Head, which rises steeply (241m/790 ft) above the sea,
affording views of mountains and sea. The name of the town
means "hill, rising ground".
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Bray is the only example in the Republic
of Ireland of a town comparable to what is so much a part of the
English experience, the seaside resort town. By the middle of the
19th century, Bray, due to tourism development, was known as the
Brighton of Ireland.
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The
fisherman's huts, with their nets and boats on the shore,
were replaced with elegant houses and hotels for the prosperous
Victorian visitors and the new residents to Bray.
From a
one-street town in 1838, Bray is now a busy urban centre
serving south county Dublin and Wicklow. The town retains some of
the reminders of the distant medieval past and much of its
outstanding Georgian and Victorian architecture.
Bray makes an
ideal base for walkers, ramblers and strollers of all ages. There
is the "Slí na Sláinte - The Healthy Walk" which is
14Km/8.75 miles of signposted coastal and urban walks in and
around the town. Then there is the scenic cliff walk (7Km/4 miles)
around the side of Bray Head to Greystones or you can climb right
to the top of Bray Head with fine views all the way up the Dublin
coast. Don't forget of course to take in the Bray Promenade which
goes from Bray Harbour to Bray Head. The first esplanade was laid
out in 1859.
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The wild and lonely coast of
Wicklow offered so many facilities for smuggling that the
efforts of the Government were unable to accomplish more than
barely to interrupt and at most delay the well laid schemes of
the contrabandists.
The usual
plan adopted by smuggling vessels plying here was, under cover
of night or misty weather, to send their contraband goods
ashore in boats to the preconcerted places of concealment on
the coast, and then to sail openly with their legitimate cargo
to Dublin or other port, and thus hoodwink the Revenue
authorities. There can be little doubt, however, that
corruption was rife among the Revenue and Customs officers at
that period, and that they could, when necessary, look in
the wrong direction.
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The natural conformation of
the coast around Bray Head lent itself readily to the
adaptation of places of concealment, of which there were
several, but the principal one was that known as "The
Brandy Hole," half a mile along the shore from where the
road crosses the railway on the Head. Here was an
immense cavern, with its entrance opening to the sea,
and its many ramifications extending far in under the
hill, affording ample accommodation for the cargoes of
all the vessels plying their risky trade here. Into this
great natural store-house, fully laden boats were easily
able to make their way by the light of lanterns, and
discharge their contents high and dry into the numerous
receptacles prepared for
them.
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Immediately over this cavern, and adjoining the
rude goat track that then encircled the Head, was a
shaft sunk in a slanting direction into the earth,
communicating with another subterraneous chamber - a
sort of second storey to the lower one - but showing no
trace of its existence on the surface, as the entrance
was carefully concealed by a thick growth of brambles
and bracken. This provided for the initiated a ready
means of access from the land to the cavern, which was
furnished where necessary with steps and platforms
whereby a person above could, by means of a rope, assist
those below to climb out on top,
or if need be,
drag up bales of goods for storage in the upper
chamber.
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In
after years, when reports began to be whispered abroad
as to the existence of this Ali Baba's cave, the locality
became the scene of some fierce struggles between the
Revenue men and the desperadoes engaged in the
contraband traffic. It was a time when a Revenue
officer's life was one of constant excitement; he needed
to be a man of courage and determination, and the risks
of his avocation were almost as great as those of a
soldier's in the field.
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Both
the caves mentioned were utterly obliterated during the
construction of the railway, but the name of "The Brandy
Hole" still attaches to an inlet in the cliffs, and is
the sole memorial of this great smugglers' rendezvous,
the very tradition of which has been lost among the
modern population.
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With the advent of steam,
telegraphs and police, smuggling has been shorn of much
of the romance with which it once was associated; the
picturesque figure of the bold smuggler with his
slouched hat and feather, jack-boots and huge pistols,
has disappeared from the stage of modern life and
survives only in that of melodrama, and the Dublin folk
of to-day, whirled rapidly along the railway around Bray
Head, look down on his former haunts with scarcely a
thought for the desperate scenes enacted there 100 years
ago.
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There are also a number of large festivals that take place in Bray.
Contact Wicklow County Tourism for more details.
Other attractions in Bray include the Old Courthouse
(1841), Victorian seafront and Bray harbour
(1891), St. Paul's Church (1609), Bray Town
Hall, Ardmore film sudios.
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So have a good time in
Bray,
Co Wicklow,
Ireland!!!!
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