Old railways in Co Donegal

Deer Hunter DL

i was having a chat with a friend of mine about the old railway lins through out Co Donegal and we were wondering who owns them or can anyone have the right of way to walk or drive them , i seen a man in a jeep once on the one in barnes more gap and it got me thinking it would be a nice pass time to explore the old railway lines

North_West_Art

hi, this subject came up before way back, and I cant find the thread... I dont think the threads go back that far... I was wondering about the possability of truning the disused railway lines into cycle paths and designated walkways, but apparently this has already been proposed in the senate... which I also cant find the link for. The Gap in Donegal and a length of railway line in Kerry were proposed for this development.

Something similar has been suggested for Mayo, and its buried in this link somewhere http://www.ndp.ie/viewdoc.asp?Docid=2142&mn=&nID=&UserLang=EN&CountyID=23&StartDate=1+January+2010

Notice how Donegal was overlooked?

I have seen a jeep driving over the old railway line in the gap, and I have attempted it myself in an old salon car, but there are trees down in the evergreen forest at the Ballybofey end, which was the end I was approaching from. My folks often took the train through the gap when it was running.
I did the Finntown railway run last year, and credit to them for setting it back up. Pity the same couldnt be done in the gap, even a few miles like they have at Finntown would be enough.

Beanstalk

Just reading your posts there reminded to put up info on the railway seminar in the County Museum in Letterkenny this Saturday. If you're about come along, there'll be a lot of people there who know everything there is to know on the Donegal railways. I posted the invite in a new thread.

North_West_Art

thanks, I saw that... going to try to get to it

ednwireland

all i have to say - 1906

and you'd be driving through back gardens and feilds as i beleive the ownership reverts to original landowner a number of years after the lines are ripped up so try finding the one round mountcharles and you spend more time climbing over fences than anything else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_Ireland

full resolution
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Map_Rail_Ireland_Viceregal_Commission_1906.jpg

homer simpson

Thay hace made a walk around the farland basin down in burt/burnfoot/inch recently the part that runs for the banking on the burt side to where you cross over the footbridge is part of an old railway, walked it regular with my grandfather when it opened he said on part (where the picnic tables are near the burnfoot entrance to the walk) is where the line split top go to derry/inishowen there is a slight hill there and you can still see the lumps of half burnt coals ect lying there.


also at moyle in newtown there is still a station there, it is just visable from the road i would love to get up to it but it on privite property:o

sesswhat

I brought up the subject a couple of years ago in this thread.

These are a couple of pictures from last year of the section through Barnesmore where it enters the Forest.

As you can see from the second picture, visitors are not exactly welcome

muffler

I know that most of the ground occupied by the railway lines in east Donegal was sold/given to adjoining landowners. CDR (County Donegal Railways) would have owned the various tracts originally but they were were amalgamated/taken over by Lough Swilley/Londonderry Lough Swilley Railways a long time ago.

I am aware of a couple of instances within the last 10 years where the solicitors had to contact the company in Derry to arrange transfer of ownership to landowners.

millyvanilli

when the CDR Strabane to Letterkenny line closed the farmers on whose land the line had been built got the chance to buy the land back from the company and as far as I know most of them did and the sleepers and telegraph poles as well (which were used to build sheds and stuff!!) The company had bought the land from the same farmers (or their father's mostly )in the first place. It was probally in the farmers best interest to buy this land back as in a lot of cases the railway line cut through their farms and the narrow track would not have been a lot of good to anyone else. No idea about prices or anything and I think that line only ran for 50 or 60 years MV

Durnish

see, it was all before nationalisation, no public ownership then or now, I imagine.

As a matter of interest, I think the railway station at Glenties was built on land owned by Brian Friel's family, parents, grandparents or so.