Bray head had a chairlift?

lostexpectation

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpdublin/2448597172/in/set-72157604500529122/?addedcomment=1#comment72157605182227349

mad, never knew about that

Alun

Yes, it was still there into the 70's I believe. There was a cafe as well called the Eagles Nest or something.

Here's a couple of pictures from a book I have ...

foxy06

It looks like something they should be working on now....not us looking at in the history books.

Lil' Smiler

Yeah years ago... really odd you brought that up actually coz i had this dream last night that there was a water slide all the way from the top down last night, like a swirly slide. Looked pretty cool i have to say!!

Alun

foxy06 wrote: »

It looks like something they should be working on now....not us looking at in the history books.

Yes, it's quite sad really looking at some of the old photos of Bray in those days. I know there isn't really the call these days for old-fashioned seaside resorts as they had back then, but a few more resources and facilities wouldn't go amiss.

WiCkLaMuLlA

yep i can barely remember the chair lift, not too shure if ma and da ever took me up ferra spin on it though. I remember hiking Bray Head back in the late 70's with the Cubs (1st Wickla 2nd Dublin) and wan of the leaders nearly got bitten be an angry/snortin' horse up near Bray Head !!! Wandered up The Big Sugarloaf a couple o' years back with de wife and the view was amazing, well worth the effort. Any sign of Bre (Blay) improving atall atall ???

pirelli

Lil' Smiler wrote: »

Yeah years ago... really odd you brought that up actually coz i had this dream last night that there was a water slide all the way from the top down last night, like a swirly slide. Looked pretty cool i have to say!!

Wow!

Congratulation's for sharing your first online dream experience.
Maybe your ancestors used it.

Lil' Smiler

pirelli wrote: »

Wow!

Congratulation's for sharing your first online dream experience.
Maybe your ancestors used it.

:rolleyes:

No need to be smart. I was merely saying that yes years ago there was a chair lift and then that it was funny this came up because I had had a dream the previous night about there being a slide, and I had forgotten about the chair lift.

pirelli

Lil' Smiler wrote: »

:rolleyes:

No need to be smart. I was merely saying that yes years ago there was a chair lift and then that it was funny this came up because I had had a dream the previous night about there being a slide, and I had forgotten about the chair lift.

Nobody's being smart. Your just paranoid.

mikedragon32

Pirelli, keep to the topic. No need for the sarcasm.

Smiler, in future if you have an issue with a post, report it, don't respond.

ian_m

It used to be visible from around the head up until a few years ago. I think they took more of it down in 2000 or there abouts. I'd love to have had a shot on it!

nmacc

I can remember travelling on the chair lift back in the sixties (yes, I'm that old). I don't rmember the cottage at the Eagle's Nest and it certainly wasn't there in recent years, but the old café was. It was a green wooden building with a wide veranda and it was a great spot to sit out an look down over Bray on a sunny day. Alas, all gone now and private property.

pixbyjohn

WiCkLaMuLlA wrote: »

yep i can barely remember the chair lift, not too shure if ma and da ever took me up ferra spin on it though. I remember hiking Bray Head back in the late 70's with the Cubs (1st Wickla 2nd Dublin) and wan of the leaders nearly got bitten be an angry/snortin' horse up near Bray Head !!! Wandered up The Big Sugarloaf a couple o' years back with de wife and the view was amazing, well worth the effort. Any sign of Bre (Blay) improving atall atall ???

So you were in the Scouts in Greystones, they are still going strong.

John Mason

Yeah, there was a pub at the top called the Eagles Nest. My granny and grandad used to go there all the time.

they were supposed to start back up a few years ago but like everything else in bray, it fall by the way side

Cher

Ah yes.... the chair lift.... I remember it well !!!! Nabbed my first ever kiss from my unsuspecting "first" boyfriend as we made our way up to the Eagle`s Nest! Well, I figured he couldn`t get away from me way up there in mid flight!

WiCkLaMuLlA

pixbyjohn wrote: »

So you were in the Scouts in Greystones, they are still going strong.

ya i tink they are John, afterall Clocha Liatha is where it more or less started in Eire fer the scout movement. Killians Hall is long gone now but there are plenty of udder places they cud prolly meet up.
I remember Al Nolan (Honda 400/4 rider), Catherine O' Toole (now Whiston), Liam Whiston, Oliver Whyte (alas now deceased but was the treasurer i tink), all the above were leaders etc. I remember plenty of my fellow scouts.....i and am in contact with some of them to this day.

lostexpectation

any pics of it in operation how long was it?

cessna152towser

I have scanned an old slide which my wife bought while on holiday in Bray many years ago before we were married, which shows the chairlift in operation:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cessna152towser/2584757929/

Creamy Goodness

wow, that looks so safe, i wouldn't think twice about using that.

cool pic, it reminds a lot of the bench at funderland in fr.ted though

Alun

cessna152towser wrote: »

I have scanned an old slide which my wife bought while on holiday in Bray many years ago before we were married, which shows the chairlift in operation:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cessna152towser/2584757929/

Thanks for that, and the other old slides of Ireland. Any idea of when these were taken? I'm guessing early to mid 60's from the cars.

Lil' Smiler

That picture scares the crap out of me!!! Couldn't imagine myself going on it!

cessna152towser

Any idea of when these were taken? I'm guessing early to mid 60's from the cars.

Early sixties is probably about right.

ian_m

Thats a great shot. I love pictures like these.

Calibos

Lil' Smiler wrote: »

That picture scares the crap out of me!!! Couldn't imagine myself going on it!

I take it you have never been skiing then?

The ground was only about 20ft under the chair you know. Few broken bones is all unless you landed on your head

The caption in the photo is a bit misleading. The lift didn't go 'to the summit' but about half way up bray head.

Alun

Calibos wrote: »

I take it you have never been skiing then?

True, but most if not all ski area chairlifts at least have a safety bar .. can't see one at all there, but then I guess that maybe they didn't have them in ski areas in those days either.

Lil' Smiler

Calibos wrote: »

I take it you have never been skiing then?

The ground was only about 20ft under the chair you know. Few broken bones is all unless you landed on your head

The caption in the photo is a bit misleading. The lift didn't go 'to the summit' but about half way up bray head.

Exactly, I haven't been skiing (except the dry slope in Kilternan )

Alun wrote: »

True, but most if not all ski area chairlifts at least have a safety bar .. can't see one at all there, but then I guess that maybe they didn't have them in ski areas in those days either.

Yup it's the no safety bar issue and stuff.

Calibos

In fairness, while health and safety weren't such a big deal back then, I think the most obviously conclusion from that pic is not that they liked to live dangerously in the sixties but that you just can't see the safety bar in the pic.

pixbyjohn

WiCkLaMuLlA wrote: »

ya i tink they are John, afterall Clocha Liatha is where it more or less started in Eire fer the scout movement. Killians Hall is long gone now but there are plenty of udder places they cud prolly meet up.

I remember Al Nolan (Honda 400/4 rider), Catherine O' Toole (now Whiston), Liam Whiston, Oliver Whyte (alas now deceased but was the treasurer i tink), all the above were leaders etc. I remember plenty of my fellow scouts.....i and am in contact with some of them to this day.

The Scouts are now in what was the tennis club opposite the La Touche hotel (now a derelict site ). The tennis courts are now a car park and the scouts use the clubroom. Al Nolan is still alive and kicking, saw him last Sunday driving an old Morris Minor van which belonged to his uncle John.
Regards, John

Calibos

A bit of trivia about the chairlift that I just read in the Bray People. Bit of a biog on Ollie the Barber who won some Bray person of the year award or something. Anyway, as a young lad he worked on the lift. Apparently the chairlift was owned by Ruiri Quinn......father of Feargal Quinn ie,
Super(Quinn)man!

Ollie would lodge the weekly takings for Ruiri. 1000 punts!! That was a shed load of money in the 50's!! You'd have nearly bought a house with that back then!

AMIIAM

Had the lift still been there( probably closed down due to gross overpricing anyway, like everything else in Bray) it would be more beneficial to towrists to walk or climb the wee lump of rock.

PBB

The previous posters are right about the Eagles Nest being private property, but if you take the public bridleway from Newcourt road (about 100 metres east of the Presentation entrance on the right) and stick to the right hand path all the way, you will get to the chair lift "landing" stage and have one of the best views of the Bay to be had...

Creamy Goodness

i think this is a much better view tbh than the chair lift landing one.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27310711@N06/2545909079/sizes/l/

the cross is to the right of the photo and this peak is a little higher than the cross just so you know where it was taken from.

ArmaniJeanss

Apols for the mega bump, but this article in last Saturdays Indo might be of interest re the chairlift.

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/the-story-of-the-chairlift-that-took-you-to-the-eagles-nest-in-bray-3275971.html

Judgement Day

What a let-down! I thought that someone was going to rebuild it. You would think that multi-millionaire Fergal Quinn might like to leave a legacy behind him, but alas, the days of philanthropy are dead and buried in Ireland.

Mebuntu

The newspaper article is not correct when it says "without serious incident". I was there the day a very serious accident took place. From memory one of the chairs further up the cable slipped its moorings and rolled down to strike the following one and people fell to the ground. I was just a boy at the time so those facts may not be 100% accurate but I can still vividly recall watching the aftermath with ambulance in attendance.

Wicklowandy

Mebuntu wrote: »

The newspaper article is not correct when it says "without serious incident". I was there the day a very serious accident took place. From memory one of the chairs further up the cable slipped its moorings and rolled down to strike the following one and people fell to the ground. I was just a boy at the time so those facts may not be 100% accurate but I can still vividly recall watching the aftermath with ambulance in attendance.

Thats a brilliant bit of living history,, anyone know about this or can find a link to newspaper report about this?.

kevc2

The chairlift stopped operation because of constant high winds made it dangerous. It would be nice to have it back but they would run into the same problem. There used to be a dance hall in the Eagle's nest. There's pictures in one of the Bray books of Ollie the barber as a kid operating it.

Judgement Day

kevc2 wrote: »

The chairlift stopped operation because of constant high winds made it dangerous. It would be nice to have it back but they would run into the same problem. There used to be a dance hall in the Eagle's nest. There's pictures in one of the Bray books of Ollie the barber as a kid operating it.

What nonsense, how did it manage to operate for years before closure - was there no wind back then?

Alun

I agree, any winds around Bray Head pale into utter insignificance compared to the wind strengths you get in some ski resorts.

Skill Magill

Lil' Smiler wrote: »

Yeah years ago... really odd you brought that up actually coz i had this dream last night that there was a water slide all the way from the top down last night, like a swirly slide. Looked pretty cool i have to say!!

Braybow Rapids?

kevc2

Judgement Day wrote: »

What nonsense, how did it manage to operate for years before closure - was there no wind back then?

My parents used to take the chairlift and have lived in Bray all their lives. They told me this is the reason that it stopped running. They took it regularly. They are also friends with Ollie the barber that ran it as a kid.

Judgement Day

I traveled on it many times in the 1960s/early 1970s and never experienced any problems with wind. As far as I know falling visitors numbers coupled with a need to invest in maintaining the infrastructure led to its closure.

Calibos

Judgement Day wrote: »

I traveled on it many times in the 1960s/early 1970s and never experienced any problems with wind. As far as I know falling visitors numbers coupled with a need to invest in maintaining the infrastructure led to its closure.

Falling Visitors would spell doom for chairlift operators anywhere in fairness.