Bray to Greystones

Bray Head and the cliff top walk to Greystones seemed like a good idea after yesterday’s hike in Howth. The cats woke me up at “Oh my God, is that the time!??” O'clock so I was able to head out to Bray in time to see the sunrise. It was pretty but honestly, I’d have been better off throwing the cats out the window and getting back to sleep. Or maybe I should have brought them along and fed them to this dude.

It was pleasant to be fair to the place, and there are a wide selection of walks. I wandered along the promenade for a while to let the light levels get up to a reasonable level and then headed for the top of the hill, taking the newly way-marked De Buitléar Way for a very bracing 4km loop up to the top and back down. It’s only about 180m climb but it’s pretty steep and definitely woke me up. It’s a nice walk but the full loop has some pretty rough and steep paths on the seaward side and there was a lot of mud and water on the paths. The view at the top is epic though and well worth the effort.

When I got back down I headed out to Greystones along the cliff path. It’s a pretty easy walk for the most part, only a few sections are in any way steep but again there were quite a few muddy patches, and three or four spots where you needed good waterproof boots to avoid ending up with very wet feet. The first couple of km give you a really nice birds eye view of Victorian railway engineering at it’s best as the paths winds along about 50m above the railway line as it snakes along the coastline from Bray to Greystones.

I think the last couple of km into Greystones are a bit dull but it’s good that the full walk is now a real path, it wasn’t the last time I was here. I have to admit that was probably close to 15 years ago though. Anyway it’s still a nice 12km round trip walk and Greystones is quite pretty itself and does offer a few nice spots to stop and have some food before heading back.

Overall not a bad way to get in 21km before lunchtime.