Bray Head gets special status after 15-year campaign

SPECIAL AMENITY area status has been conferred on Bray Head, Co Wicklow, by Minister for the Environment John Gormley.

The headland is the fourth area in the State to be issued with a Special Amenity Area Order - it follows Howth Head, the Liffey Valley and Bull Island, all in the greater Dublin area.

The move follows a 15-year campaign.

The application for designation was made jointly by Bray Town and Wicklow County Councils and is the first time a local authority has been successful in such a request. The previous three orders were made by ministerial initiative.

In the application lodged last year the local authorities said the headland, which is some 12 miles south of Dublin city, had largely escaped residential or commercial development, in contrast to Killiney Hill or Howth.

Much of Bray Head is in private ownership. In recent years it has come under increasing development pressure with local residents campaigning unsuccessfully against a housing development on educationally zoned land on the northern slopes.

The southern slopes overlook Greystones harbour and are located close to the area in which a new €300 million marina, commercial and residential development is being constructed.

In a complicated land swop put together by a local property developer, Bray Golf Club moved to Bray Head's western slopes in recent years.