Open Our Cliff Walk in Greystones

Why this Petition Matters

Over the years before Covid, hundreds of thousands of visitors annually enjoyed the wonderful experience of walking the beautiful Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk overlooking the Irish Sea. Thousands of local residents also enjoyed the trail for walking and hiking. It was listed as one of the top tourist attractions in Ireland, regularly used by Failte Ireland in its advertising campaigns. The Cliff Walk was a very important economic generator and job creator in both Bray and Greystones.

But no longer! For the past 3 and a half years the trail has been officially closed.

Custodian and amenity operator Wicklow County Council (WCC) closed the trail in February 2021 as result of a cliff landslide about 2km north of Greystones. Over a 10 metre pathway strip, the hedgerow on the seaside of the walk disappeared down the Cliff face and settled onto a plateau some 4 metres below. But the pathway remained passable, as it still does today. Barriers and signage were erected to dissuade users on both the Greystones and Bray ends of the walk, and also around the effected cliff area. 

Furthermore, and separately, a rock slide onto the pathway on the Bray side in Oct 2022 caused increased  anxiety as to public safety and the barriers were further reinforced to keep users out. Today all those barriers sit damaged and vandalised by the public, leaving a serious health and safety risk in situ. But in true Irish fashion, and despite the difficulties, in defiance, walkers continue to use the amenity … but in much, much smaller numbers than previously. 

It appears that WCC’s main efforts in the interim have concentrated on procuring a new inland routing for the walkway on the Greystones side. This is to be admired. But any proposed new routing will likely take many years to be realised because of the necessary rights-of-way land procurement processes involved. Meanwhile WCC has recently opened a temporary alternate walkway, supported by signage. On the Greystones side this runs along the main roadway to Bray, a completely different experience and hardly comparable in any way to the heretofore Cliff Walk.

One community group, Sustainable Greystones, has been lobbying WCC over the past 18 months to reopen the walkway on the Greystones side. A simple and inexpensive bypass of the landslide area has been designed and proposed by a leading national expert in recreational tracks and trails. On request, this proposal was presented to Wicklow County Council in March this year. But it has been rejected out of hand by WCC without any meaningful engagement to discuss its merits. This response is totally unacceptable.

Another Greystones community group, Friends of the Cliff Walk, the promoter of this campaign, has formed recently in August 24 out of frustration with the lack of proactive interest by WCC to find a safe and appropriate interim solution that allows walkers use the Cliff Walk from Greystones to the Windgates turn off, half way to Bray. If reopened to Windgates, walkers would have the choice of hiking and walking to Bray over the top route on Bray Head; or they could return to Greystones along the same route that they had come. And vice versa.

This petition is a call to action for WCC to proactively engage with Friends of the Cliff Walk in order to find an agreeable interim solution that re-opens the Cliff Walk from Windgates down to Greystones. By putting your name to this petition you are expressing your support for this campaign.

Please submit your name today as further directed within this petition. Note that any voluntary contribution monies sought or paid go to the operators of this petition platform Change.org. Friends of the Cliff Walk does not benefit in any way.