The Garden of Ireland, lying immediately to the south of the city of Dublin, has three distinct landscapes. To the east there is a narrow coastal littoral. Then a little inland there is rising ground dominated by small farms, principally engaged in sheep farming; in the centre of the county there is a magnificent upland wilderness. West Wicklow, which falls away from these heights towards the plains of Kildare, repeats the sheep farming model. Wicklow was one of the last areas of Ireland to be shired. Its existence in its modern form dates only from the early 17th century. Traditionally its society and economy has been dominated by the two coastal towns of Wicklow and Arklow. From the late 19th century Bray in the north of the county became a watering place for Dubliners in the classic way of Victorian seaside resorts, and was indeed dubbed the Blackpool of Ireland.