April 2007

BRAY COUNTY WICKLOW – APRIL 2007

Unfortunately I lost the original RAW and this second generation JPG contains much noise.

I owned a record shop and a hi-fi consultancy business on Quinsboro Road in the 1970s but I now only visit the town about once a year which is a pity as I really enjoyed working there.

In medieval times, Bray was on the southern border of the Pale, and the coastal district was governed directly by the English crown from Dublin Castle. Inland, the countryside was largely under the control of Gaelic Chieftains, such as the O’Toole and O’Byrne clans.

Bray features on the 1598 map “A Modern Depiction of Ireland, One of the British Isles” by Abraham Ortelius as “Brey”. The Earl of Meath purchased the Killruddery Estate in Bray in 1627 with the establishment of the Earl title. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Bray was a small manorial village, but during the latter part of the 18th century, the Dublin middle-classes began to move to Bray.

The Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first in Ireland, opened in 1834 and was extended as far as Bray in 1854. With the coming of the railway, the town grew to become a seaside resort. Hotels and residential terraces were built in the vicinity of the seafront. Railway entrepreneur William Dargan developed the Turkish baths, designed in a Moorish style at a cost of £10,000; these were demolished in 1980. By the mid-20th century, the town’s use as a resort had declined when foreign travel became an option for holiday-makers. However, day-trippers continued to come to Bray during the summer months.

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