Five ways Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk could be reopened after St Patrick’s Day deadline slips

By Hugh O'Farrell Walsh, The Wicklow People

For generations, the seven-kilometre stretch of coastline connecting Bray and Greystones has been more than just a path, the Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk has been a rite of passage.

On any given Saturday, the narrow ribbon of earth clinging to the side of Bray Head would be a microcosm of Irish life. Hikers in high-tech Gore-Tex overtaking families with melting ice creams, and tourists from around the globe stopping to marvel at the grey-blue expanse of the Irish Sea.

But today, the silence at the trailheads is heavy. What was once a bustling artery of tourism along the east coast is now a ghost trail, severed by the relentless hunger of the sea and the shifting weight of the earth.

As we pass the St Patrick’s Day reopening target, a central target of Tánaiste Simon Harris’s taskforce, the path isn’t just closed, it is changing forever.

The crisis didn’t happen overnight, but it arrived with a finality that stunned the local community. A series of landslides, beginning in early 2021 and accelerating through 2023, left the Cliff Walk in a state of terminal instability.

By late February 2026, the official verdict from Wicklow County Council and RPS Consultants was that sections of the path are in "imminent danger of collapse”.

Deep fissures have opened in the soil, some wide enough to swallow a hiking boot, indicating that the very foundation of the trail is sliding toward the waves below. The council’s recent 36-month timeline for repairs – stretching into 2029 – has been a bitter pill for local businesses and residents to swallow.

To bridge the gap between the current "imminent danger" warnings and a sustainable future, here are five ways to reimagine how the Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk could be reopened.

1. The great inland shift: a new frontier

The first pillar of the reimagined walk is perhaps the most controversial: admitting defeat to the sea. For decades, engineers have tried to fix the cliff face, but the constant battle with climate change, bringing more intense rainfall and higher storm surges, coupled with associated coastal erosion, has made that a losing battle.

The new strategy is the inland bypass. Wicklow County Council has entered negotiations with private landowners on the Greystones side to move the trail roughly five to 14 metres away from the cliff edge.

If voluntary sales fail, the prospect of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) looms—a legal process that could secure the path’s future, but may take years to resolve in the courts.

2. High-wire engineering and smart cliffs

On the Bray side, the topography is more vertical and less forgiving. Here, the reimaging of the walk looks like something out of an action movie.

Specialist contractors, equipped with industrial rope-access gear, are deployed to scale the heights.

These climber-engineers are tasked with a dual mission: manual stabilisation and the installation of high-tech sensors. The vision for the 2029 reopening includes a Smart Safety System. Automated slope-stability sensors would monitor the vibration and moisture levels of the rock.

Imagine a traffic light system for hikers: a green light at the trailhead means the sensors detect no movement, an amber light warns of high winds or recent heavy rain, and a red light automatically locks electronic gates during high-risk events. It’s a 21st-century solution to an age-old geological problem.

The closure has allowed the local ecosystem a rare moment of peace, and planners are looking to capitalise on this through a tiered eco-tourism model. The area is a Special Area of Conservation, home to the common lizard, peregrine falcons, and rare maritime flora.

The reimagined walk would not just be a way to get from A to B, it would be an outdoor classroom. Phase 2 of the council’s plan involves an interpretive study to install low-impact, high-information signage.

By elevating the walk to a nature trail status, it becomes easier to secure EU environmental funding, which is essential for the multi-million-euro price tag this project now carries.

4. The labyrinth approach: beyond the linear

One of the biggest mistakes of the past was relying on a single, linear route. If one section fell, the whole system failed. The reimagining focuses on a multi-loop network.

While the main cliff path remains strictly closed to members of the public, the Bray Head Looped Trail and the Victoria Trail have been upgraded. These diversions take walkers higher up the headland, offering even more dramatic views, while keeping them on solid, inland ground.

By formalising these higher routes with permanent surfacing and better signage, the council is creating a labyrinth of options. If the lower cliff path is closed for maintenance, a hiker can simply veer onto an upper loop and continue their journey to Greystones without hitting a ‘road closed’ sign.

Peter Murtagh and Dermod Dwyer from the Friends of the Cliff Walk campaign group at the start of the Greystones leg of the path to Bray. Photo: Mark Condren

5. The path guardians: power to the people

Perhaps the most obvious part of this reimagining is the shift in management. The Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk Management Committee has expanded to include local voices, and the results are already visible.

Groups like the Friends of the Cliff Walk aren’t waiting for the 2029 deadline to make a difference. They have been active in clearing gorse and maintaining the accessible zones of the trail. This community-led program ensures that the walk is treated as a shared heritage rather than a government liability.

By giving the group a seat at the table, the council is ensuring the walk stays open in the hearts of the people, even while the physical path is being rebuilt.

However, the committee has faced criticism in recent months, not least for banning members of the press to attend meetings.

A fundamental point of friction is the council’s zero risk approach to safety. Community representatives on the committee have argued that the Cliff Walk is inherently risky and that hikers should be allowed to use it at their own discretion with proper warning signage, rather than being blocked by permanent, and often bypassed, barriers.

The role Sport Ireland have to play has also been a prominent bone of contention within the committee’s membership. In early 2026, the body indicated it would reject a nomination to join the group. The organisation stated that taking a seat on a trail management committee would represent a conflict of interest with its official role in managing the National Trails Register.

Despite the rejection, it was later claimed in February 2026 that Sport Ireland had nominated an ‘outdoor recreation expert’ to join the group.

Some committee members, including Cllr Joe Behan and Cllr Malachí Duddy have expressed frustration that a nominee was sought from Sport Ireland without the body's initial consent.

It’s after district councillors in Bray voted to block Bray Coastcare from membership on the expanded committee. The group later expressed feeling "hurt and let down" by the decision. Founded in April 2007, the group focuses on keeping coastal areas free of litter and graffiti, while improving public access and maintaining biodiversity.

As we look toward the horizon, the St Patrick’s Day 2026 deadline has now passed like a ship in the night. The barriers remain, and the warnings of "imminent collapse" are a sobering reminder of nature's power.

But a reimagined Bray to Greystones Cliff Walk promises something better than a quick fix. It promises a resilient, tech-enabled, environmentally conscious trail that respects the power of the Irish Sea rather than trying to defy it.

The walk’s closure is currently costing the local economy millions of euros, but the blueprints for its return suggest that when we finally do step back onto those cliffs, we will be walking on something far more sustainable than what we lost.

Until then, we must look to the upper loops, follow the diversion signs, and wait for the day when the two towns are once again joined by what is arguably the most beautiful shortcut in Ireland.