A NEW atlas on Bray is the ninth in the Royal Irish Academy's Irish Historic Towns Atlas series. It is edited by Anngret Simms, H.B. Clarke and Raymond Gillespie and the project is part of a European venture involving 12 countries. With Bray, the project takes a distinct swing in emphasis.
Unlike other towns studied, Bray simply seemed too recent and without a comparable depth of medieval history. Evidence of early settlement in the Bray area is slight.
But geographer Mary Davies, the newly retired cartographic editor of the series, who has written the Bray atlas essay, chose Ireland's first example of the dormitory town because of its uniqueness to Ireland.
"Bray in its heyday had an atmosphere more akin to that of an English, Welsh or Manx resort than to that of other Irish towns." Also, a conscious decision made in the 1860s set out to model it on the new English south-coast resorts, specifically Brighton, by then Britain's largest resort.
In 1981, when the Royal Irish Academy began work on the Irish Historic Towns Atlas series, Ms Davies nominated Bray as the only example in southern Ireland of a town comparable to what is so much a part of the English experience, the seaside resort town.
By the mid 19th-century, Bray, due to tourism development, was known as the Brighton of Ireland. Its popularity owed much to the emergence of sea-bathing, and attitude changes on swimming as an acceptable public pursuit.
Added to this was the impact of the Romantic movement, which drew attention to Wicklow's wild beauty. Suddenly, landscape was viewed as vital to the soul rather than hostile or threatening; nature became attractive. Wicklow's north-eastern glens, particularly Powerscourt waterfall, drew many visitors, not only Irish.
The town's coastal position was hugely important. With a tourist influx, summer houses began to be built, as were summertime bathing lodges. The first Ordnance Survey map in 1838 shows a solidly based one-street town. Between 1666 and the 1831 census, Bray's population grew more than tenfold. There were more than 3,500 people. Also crucial was the opening of the Dublin-to-Bray railway in 1854.
Today, Bray is a busy urban centre serving south county Dublin and Wicklow. There is an extensive manufacturing base and a large industrial estate. The population is well beyond 25,000.
Even in the commuting age, Bray, Ireland's first, remains one of the busiest of Dublin's dormitory towns. It is easy to deny what was a splendid Victorian resort - as evident in Erskine Nicol's atmospheric watercolour of the seafront in 1862 - its place in history. Much of the wonderful architecture is gone, including the flamboyant Turkish Baths ("a faint echo of Brighton Pavilion"). But some Victorian houses remain, many of which are now guest houses and rest homes.
Despite its relative "newness" in an Irish historical context, Bray can still point to a history spanning 800 years. Ms Davies reclaims this early history and refers to several Romano-British burials, possibly part of a cemetery, which were discovered on the Bray shore and suggest a second-century presence from outside Ireland.
The nearest significant early Christian monastic settlement is at Rathmichael, while Bray's only surviving building from this period is Raheenacluig, a tiny medieval church on the north side of Bray Head.
Signs of the first late 12th-century settlement were discovered. Land on either side of the River Dargle was granted to an Anglo-Norman knight, Walter de Ridelesford, about 1173, and he built a castle on the side south of the river. In defence terms, it was a poor choice. By 1213 Bray, with its market and the presence of burgesses, had acquired borough status.
The most serious factor then impeding its further development was one which would in time prove so valuable - the Wicklow Mountains.
Several early maps are included, most notably Jonathan Barker's (1762) and two early maps of Kilruddery estate, one from 1764; Vaughan's impressive study dated 1853 and Heffernan's Illustrated Plan of Bray from about 1870.
The mid-19th century Earl of Meath, who insisted the railway went along the coast, not through his land, and later, the Loreto nuns, who have one of the finest views in Bray from land acquired from the Putland estate, have been major influences on development in the area.
As late as the mid-18th century, Bray was no more than a small market town, but tourism would transform this. Ms Davies points out that while Bray had a promenade, which continues to draw residents and visitors, it never had a pier.
The Irish Historic Towns Atlas is an exciting example of urban geography working in partnership with history. Each of the nine Irish town fascicles costs £18 and are available from The Royal Irish Academy and bookstores .