Big fire on Bray Head

Thargor

I ran up Bray Head at 18:30 to see what it was like up there, went up from the gate at the roundabout on the Southern Cross, absolutely crazy amounts of smoke coming from the tiniest little fire about 100m from the cross towards Greystones, a strong wind was blowing it all out to sea and up towards Dublin so it didn't even smell like smoke up there.

orchidsrpretty

bikerjohn wrote: »

and man was never on the moon FFS :rolleyes:

Don't take yourself too serious there John might give yourself a (2) stroke !


:rolleyes:

zoobizoo

Judgement Day wrote: »

I haven't been up to the Cross since 1989 and I was considering bringing my young children up there this summer but am wary of the sort of people who now appear to hang out up there.

I've been up there many times during the day and have never encountered anyone untoward. Same goes for my brother and his kids. They head up every time they're back in Bray.

Calibos

Que Judgement Day saying something like, "Yeah, well I still wouldn't go up there because of all the dog **** anyway" or words to that effect

Calibos

IMHO, what we're seeing is paradoxically an effect of the lack of malicious fires/arson started by the delightful young day trippers from Dublin over the last few years who now make there fun out in Portmarnock and Howth every Summer instead of Bray. Without regular fires over the last few years theres been a buildup of combustible dead dried vegitation. Forest Management authorities in many countries that acceded to negative public opinion about controlled burns years ago have realised they need to re-instate controlled burn policies otherwise you end up with massive conflagrations that destroys the whole forest instead of just small fires confined to the underbrush that remain small but leave the trees relatively unscathed.

Annasopra

Calibos wrote: »

Que Judgement Day saying something like, "Yeah, well I still wouldn't go up there because of all the dog **** anyway" or words to that effect

Agreed or because xyz negative reason

Judgement Day

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

Agreed or because xyz negative reason

At least I'm not on your ignore list.

Anyway, based on what zoobizoo said in this thread I will now undertake a safari to Bray Head and report back here.

gerbilgranny

Judgement Day wrote: »

I haven't been up to the Cross since 1989 and I was considering bringing my young children up there this summer but am wary of the sort of people who now appear to hang out up there.

I know someone else has replied to this post already - but I just couldn't let it go without putting my tuppence-worth in.

I think you and your children are missing out big-time, by not going up to the Cross - and even around the side towards the cliff walk etc. I've never encountered anything bad up there - far from it.

And while it's sensible to be cautious, I think it'd be a pity to have your children growing up thinking the world is a bad place.

B0jangles

Yeah, Bray Head is really very safe 99% of the time; the fires are an occasional seasonal problem.

Calibos wrote: »

Without regular fires over the last few years theres been a buildup of combustible dead dried vegitation. Forest Management authorities in many countries that acceded to negative public opinion about controlled burns years ago have realised they need to re-instate controlled burn policies otherwise you end up with massive conflagrations that destroys the whole forest instead of just small fires confined to the underbrush that remain small but leave the trees relatively unscathed.

That's a very valid point - last summer was extremely long, hot and sunny and I don't think there were any big fires, so there would be a very significant build-up of dead vegetation.

Also for anyone nervous of meeting trouble while out for a walk, I've never encountered any real anti-social trouble in all the years I've lived near it and have been walking up and around it. A lovely walk is the one that starts at the back of the Head, just beside Bray golf course (Near the roundabout). It goes up a steepish grass slope to the cross and then you can walk the whole way along the top of the head until you get to the slopes leading down to Greystones.

Wonderful views from up there

loyatemu

B0jangles wrote: »

Any ideas out there about how to prevent this happening?

If there was an effective way of stopping idiots from dropping lit cigarettes or matches in remote places I'm sure the authorities in Australia and California would have figured it out by now.

Thargor

loyatemu wrote: »

If there was an effective way of stopping idiots from dropping lit cigarettes or matches in remote places I'm sure the authorities in Australia and California would have figured it out by now.

These kinds of ecosystems are designed to burn though, especially in Oz, its part of the life cycle, better to burn it once a year than let it pile up.

Calibos

Originally Posted by Judgement Day
I haven't been up to the Cross since 1989 and I was considering bringing my young children up there this summer but am wary of the sort of people who now appear to hang out up there.

If you haven't been up since 1989 how would you know what sort of people now appear to hang out up there?

I haven't been up in the last year or so due to health issues but was up there regularly with the dogs and occasionally family at least once a week during the summers for several years. I haven't met any dodgy looking characters or dodgy looking gangs of youths in nearly a decade. What I have met all the time Winter or Summer up there is Irish Families, fitness enthusiasts running up and down, Americans tourists, groups of language students from every country on the continent, Eastern European families etc etc The last time I came across a dodgy looking group was 2005 (3 loud trackie wearing Dubs who did nothing but ask about my dogs btw) which is the reason I remember when it was. New dogs dated 'the incident' to 2005.

I dunno, maybe its confirmation bias but the reduction in the number of fires and dodgy character sightings on Bray Head in the last decade or so are just another data point that confirms in my own mind my oft stated theory that the Dart Summer Closures in 2006 were the best thing to happen for Bray in decades. Gangs of Drunken Dublin Youth took their antics to Portmarnock and Howth that year and never came back en masse. Seafront rapidly gentrified as a result and now we are starting to see investment in the last few years which appears to be accelerating.

No one denies the historical problems Bray had that you are always quick to remind us of. But there was a reason for the decay and dereliction and lack of investment. Brays image problem. 2006 was when the tide turned. Things are better now and will only get better.

Judgement Day

Calibos wrote: »

If you haven't been up since 1989 how would you know what sort of people now appear to hang out up there?

I haven't been up in the last year or so due to health issues but was up there regularly with the dogs and occasionally family at least once a week during the summers for several years. I haven't met any dodgy looking characters or dodgy looking gangs of youths in nearly a decade. What I have met all the time Winter or Summer up there is Irish Families, fitness enthusiasts running up and down, Americans tourists, groups of language students from every country on the continent, Eastern European families etc etc The last time I came across a dodgy looking group was 2005 (3 loud trackie wearing Dubs who did nothing but ask about my dogs btw) which is the reason I remember when it was. New dogs dated 'the incident' to 2005.

I dunno, maybe its confirmation bias but the reduction in the number of fires and dodgy character sightings on Bray Head in the last decade or so are just another data point that confirms in my own mind my oft stated theory that the Dart Summer Closures in 2006 were the best thing to happen for Bray in decades. Gangs of Drunken Dublin Youth took their antics to Portmarnock and Howth that year and never came back en masse. Seafront rapidly gentrified as a result and now we are starting to see investment in the last few years which appears to be accelerating.

No one denies the historical problems Bray had that you are always quick to remind us of. But there was a reason for the decay and dereliction and lack of investment. Brays image problem. 2006 was when the tide turned. Things are better now and will only get better.

You highlighted the wrong word. I don't know but from what I've heard things didn't sound too promising but after this thread I will be going up in August.

RosieJoe

Calibos wrote: »

If you haven't been up since 1989 how would you know what sort of people now appear to hang out up there?

I haven't been up in the last year or so due to health issues but was up there regularly with the dogs and occasionally family at least once a week during the summers for several years. I haven't met any dodgy looking characters or dodgy looking gangs of youths in nearly a decade. What I have met all the time Winter or Summer up there is Irish Families, fitness enthusiasts running up and down, Americans tourists, groups of language students from every country on the continent, Eastern European families etc etc The last time I came across a dodgy looking group was 2005 (3 loud trackie wearing Dubs who did nothing but ask about my dogs btw) which is the reason I remember when it was. New dogs dated 'the incident' to 2005.

I dunno, maybe its confirmation bias but the reduction in the number of fires and dodgy character sightings on Bray Head in the last decade or so are just another data point that confirms in my own mind my oft stated theory that the Dart Summer Closures in 2006 were the best thing to happen for Bray in decades. Gangs of Drunken Dublin Youth took their antics to Portmarnock and Howth that year and never came back en masse. Seafront rapidly gentrified as a result and now we are starting to see investment in the last few years which appears to be accelerating.

No one denies the historical problems Bray had that you are always quick to remind us of. But there was a reason for the decay and dereliction and lack of investment. Brays image problem. 2006 was when the tide turned. Things are better now and will only get better.

Really, I've never seen you state this theory of yours before

Calibos

RosieJoe wrote: »

Really, I've never seen you state this theory of yours before

Every chance I get

I should probably collate all my comments on the subject from various forums and compose a single Thread in this forum and just link to it in the future. Outside of this forum I only talk about my theory/stats when Bray is mentioned in a given thread to be followed by the usual "Bray...Brraaaaaayyy, Jaysus Brayruit wha wha" sh1te.

Dredd_J

I was up there during the last BIG fire. Helicopters were dropping water on the gorse and everything.
Those fires always look much worse than they are.
While there is a lot of smoke you could actually walk through the line of gorse thats burning and not even feel the heat.
The worst youll get are thorns stuck in your legs.

zoobizoo

Dredd_J wrote: »

The worst youll get are thorns stuck in your legs.

By the ruffians?

murpho999

Judgement Day wrote: »

You highlighted the wrong word. I don't know but from what I've heard things didn't sound too promising but after this thread I will be going up in August.

Seriously your fears are unfounded.

Go up any time during the day and it's mostly families with kids and dogs and no hassle.

Even there were dodgy characters, just avoid them and you'll have no hassle.

The view is well worth it.

Thargor

I was up again there, none of the head has actually burned, the burned bit is off down towards the sea in the Greystones direction, still everything left to burn on the actual head.

loyatemu

If i was a ne'er-do-well looking for somewhere to drink my flagon, I'm not sure I'd bother hiking all the way up to top of Bray Head - the only time I've ever been menaced up there is when I was chased by a swarm of angry bees.

Thargor

Even when you do meet errrr... "Buckfast enthusiasts" in places like Bray Head or Djouce etc thats about the only place you can say hello to them and have them say hello back or have a chat with them, the Wicklow mountains always make people nicer to each other I always thought, or maybe as you say the effort to get up there filters a lot of the worst elements. Litter and broken glass/cans are a worse problem this year though, probably the hot weather.