Fading Victoriana

BRAY'S major building boom occurred in the mid 19th century and this Victorian style is still stamped on the town centre, from the magnificent sturdy red brick Town Hall (at the top of the main street) to the terraces of large Victorian houses on the side streets beyond the shops.

Down on the seafront this atmosphere of fading but brave Victoriana persists. The big elegant houses (some of them complete with turrets) are now hotels, pubs, guesthouses or restaurants.

They look out onto the promenade for which the town is famous, and which exudes an immortal seaside charm. The beach is a bit pebbly, and not as much frequented as the long grassy park area beside the promenade. Here you will see families, youngsters and elderly folk, sitting or sprawling on rugs if the day is fine. There are a number of pagoda shaped ice cream booths, with cheerful orange roofs and blue doors where gaggles of children converge to buy sweets and ice cream. At one end of the promenade there is the vista of Bray Head at the other, Killiney Bay and, on a clear day, a glimpse of Howth.

Bray was once a sedate seaside town, but in recent years, especially with the arrival of the DART connection, it has begun to sprawl around the edges. This increase in population is evident in the main street, which seems constantly busy with a stream of traffic and purposeful shoppers.

. WHERE TO GO FOR INFORMATION:

The tourist office is located just across the Bray Bridge at the bottom of Main Street, near the Royal Hotel. It is a fine old Victorian building, once the town courthouse.

. WORTH VISITING:

The building which houses the tourist office also has a heritage centre and, upstairs, an art gallery. The heritage centre shows the history and geology of Bray on story boards, and has a number of interesting display cases with objects such as belt buckles found on the site of a Cromwellian camp at nearby Loughlinstown and pine cones carbon dated by local students back to 4,500 BC from the Drowned Forest at North Beach, Bray.

Before you leave Main Street, go to the top to have a quick look at the imposing Town Hall (built in 1881 and recently restored), with its huge wooden doors and distinctive white and black upper storey.

Down on the seafront, the Fun Fair (at the harbour end of Strand Road), with its cheery yellow and red slides, merry go round and roller coaster, should be enough to satisfy any museum weary child (or adult, for that matter). Further down Strand Road, screams of panic and delight emanate from the dodgems at Fun Palace Amusements.

Just across the road is the National Aquarium where you can find a young octopus, an enormous red tailed catfish a velvet swimming crab, a beautiful pair of peacock cichlid, young piranha (who ate their parents) and many more. The tropical fish have spectacular markings and all the tanks have informative plaques to tell you about the distinctive life cycle of each fish.

Having walked from one end of the seafront to the other, you may feel weary. The Bray Seafront Roadtrain is a dinky, open sided version of an old steam train, painted red and green, which brings passengers from one end of the seafront to the other (the fare is £1 for adults and SOP for children; the train runs every 20 minutes): The train also does an evening trip, leaving the Royal Hotel at 8.30 p.m., travelling down the seafront, and even going past Ardmore Studios. The evening fare is £2.50.

. WHAT TO BUY:

Beau Peep on Quinsborough Road has a collection of old fashioned dolls and teddies, as well as glass figurines and pottery. Further down on the same road there is a health food shop called the Nutkeg, which sells herbal teas, complementary medicines its own brand of peanut butter a selection of ready made vegetarian goodies to take away and frozen goat's milk.

The Dubray bookshop on Main Street is a large and well stocked bookshop, with a variety of categories including craft, science fantasy, psychology, gardening and a large children's section.

Bray has its own Leonidas shop (on Florence Road) and Body Shop (Main Street). In the Village Gate Arcade, off Main Street there are two upmarket children's clothes shops.

Just beyond the town on the N11, Avoca Handweavers in nearby Kilmacanogue has an extensive shop, full of modern designs as well as traditional tweeds, knitwear, books, pottery and perfumes. There is also an excellent cafe for lunch or tea.

. WHERE TO EAT:

For the hungry traveller, Goldsmiths pub on Quinsborough Road does a carvery lunch. For those in search of something lighter, Bray has a vegetarian restaurant, Escape (open for lunch and dinner), just off the seafront.

Also on the seafront is Restaurant Eamonn (open week nights and for Sunday lunch), which serves a wide range of seafood, as well as red meat and poultry (a la carte, and a £14.50 set menu). Bray's best known restaurant, however, is the upmarket The Tree of Idleness, also on the seafront, which serves Greek Cypriot food. The menu includes squid ink ravioli with fresh salmon and dill filling (£5) and roast suckling pig with apple and apricot stuffing (£14.50).

Back on Main Street, the Dargle Room Restaurant in the Royal Hotel has a set four course evening menu for £15.

. WHERE TO STAY:

There is a range of B&Bs at £16 per night, with en suite bathroom. Guesthouses average at £18 a night. Most of these are located on the seafront.

Just beside the railway station is the Mayfair Hotel, a large Victorian house now converted into a one star hotel (£20 a night).

Close to the Main Street, on the Quinsborough Road, is the more modern Westbourne Hotel, which costs £27.50 a night. For those who feel like splashing out, the Royal is a three star hotel on Main Street, and costs £90.

On the seafront, a room at the Esplanade Hotel will cost you £80, while the Strand, next door, is £55. Both are old Victorian buildings with whimsical turrets.

. DAYTIME EXERTIONS:

If you are staying at the Royal, you can take advantage of the Leisure Centre there. Otherwise The Olympian Studio, a gym off the Quinsborough Road, is open to the public, as is the Bray Sport and Fitness Clinic on Oldcourt Park, at the southern end of the town (which has an indoor pool and gym).

Bray Bowl, opposite the railway station, has a new rollerblade skating rink as well as bowling facilities and a supervised play area for under 10s.

For those who prefer taking their exercise in the fresh air, there is always the option of climbing Bray Head (but don't try to walk all the way to Greystones, because there has been some erosion on the cliff). For a ramble on horseback through the Wicklow mountains, go to the Brennanstown Equestrian Centre, Hollybrook, Kilmacanogue.

Between the coast and the many rivers and lakes in Co Wicklow, there are plenty of opportunities for angling in the Bray area. If you are prepared to drive to Aughrim (about an hour from Bray), there is a new, wheelchair accessible Disabled Angling Facility, with a fully stocked four acre lake.

There is a nine hole golf course in Bray, and a championship 18 hole course in Powerscourt.

. NIGHT MOVES:

Most of the pubs in Bray have music of different kinds in the evenings. At Katie Gallagher's on the seafront there is line dancing on Wednesdays, traditional Irish music on Thursdays and a live band on Saturdays. Dusty Miller's Bar, in the Westbourne Hotel on Quinsborough Road, has entertainment every night, from pub quizzes to live bands. Between Thursdays and Sundays there is a nightclub at the Westbourne called The Tube. On Thursdays and Saturdays there is traditional music at the Mayfair Hotel, and set dancing on Mondays and Wednesdays. At the Bray Head Hotel, at the end of the seafront, there is a disco (Planet Zone) on Saturdays, and old time music and dancing on Sundays.

Bray has a five screen cinema: on Quinsborough Road.

. OTHER ACTIVITIES IN THE AREA:

Co Wicklow is full of beautiful drives and walks, some of them quite close to Bray. Powerscourt Gardens, near Enniskerry, is a mere 20 minute drive away and the magnificent Waterfall (the highest in Ireland) is only a few minutes further on. The little town of Enniskerry is full of cafes and craft shops.

For those with more time to spend, it is worth taking the scenic: drive all the way to Glendalough; (20 miles from Bray). The memorable route continues from Enniskerry to Glencree, on through the Sally Gap, to Roundwood, through Annamoe and Laragh, and on to Glendalough, with its stunning valley and sixth century monastic site.

For those who are not enamoured of scenery, there is the popular Glenroe Open Farm at Kilcoole, south of Bray, which is a working farm as well as the location for filming the well known TV series. Visitors can see Dinny's cottage and children can hold, feed and play with farm animals.

Meanwhile, nine miles south of Bray in Newtownmountkennedy, there is Model World, which depicts Ireland through the ages. If it is pouring rain, you could take the kids to Clara Lara indoor adventure park between Laragh and Rathdrum.

. DID YOU KNOW:

Bray is Neil Jordan's native place, and his atmospheric film, The Miracle, about a pair of teenagers on their summer holidays in a seaside town, was made there. Also, the recently established Oscar Wilde Autumn School takes place in Bray in October.

. WHERE'S THE LOO?:

There's a Superloo outside the Bray Urban District Council Office at the top of the main street. There are also public toilets on the seafront, beside the aquarium.

. HOW TO GET THERE:

By car: take the N11 from Dublin.

By bus: from Busaras, Dublin, there are eight buses a day which stop in Bray; from Eden Quay in Dublin, the No 45 leaves every 20 minutes, the 84 every hour.

By train or DART, from Connolly Station, Dublin: three trains per day go to Wexford and stop in Bray; the DART goes to Bray every 15 or 20 minutes.