I did the walk this morning - Bray to greystones (and back again)….absolutely amazing. One of the best walks in Wicklow, without a shadow of a doubt.

The scenery is seriously stunning.

The only down side to the walk is the large development, just past McCarthy’s field on the way into Greystones Harbour. For about 300 metres, you are walking alongside a property development site. It’s less of a drag if you’re walking from Greystones to Bray, but, if you’re coming the other way, it’s a tad of an eyesore.

Apart from that, there is a new bridge on the greystones side of bray head, that makes the walk less precarious - some of the walk way had collapsed because of sea erosion.

Totally agree with your comment about children. There are many precarious points on the cliff walk that are most definitely not child-friendly.

Worth mentioning also that appropriate footwear is recommended. I passed a guy this morning who was wearing sandals. An hour later when I passed him coming back the other way…he was walking almost sideways and very slowly, like a crab and in obvious discomfort.

The cliff walk is well trodden and relatively smooth for the most part, but, the majority is rough underfoot and while it’s not quite hiking-boot terrain, wearing jogging trainers or footwear with a decent thick sole is recommended.

The mineral deposit was formed when a series of earthquakes along the Shankill Fracture Zone caused water to boil in the fault zone, causing destructive underground steam explosions; boiling water precipitated the ore minerals. A breccia of broken rock and black manganese oxides is found at the mine’s adit entrance.

Iron was mined between 1862 and 1868, from underground and opencast workings by A. Illingworth and the Dean of Clogher. The opencast workings follow the fault for 250 metres to the south east, uphill from the adit entrance. The iron ore died out quickly, as it was just a thin gossan.

It’s a great amenity but much of the stretch to Mullingar is within earshot of the road so you can hear the constant distant swish of traffic. Apart from that it is very secluded and quiet. After Mullingar, the canal goes off on a dog leg direction instead of straight towards Longford & the Shannon.

The downside of pedalling the tow-path is the number of gates where farmers have closed off the path to avoid cattle straying. May of these have kissing gates but you can’t get a bike through them so the only way was to take off the saddle bags and lift it over. This was especially frustrating when you could see the next gate say 200 meters further on. Also the path is sometimes overgrown or severely undulating due to root growth.