A Co. Antrim Discovery

[Patrick Davey]

I usually post material like this on Facebook but I thought it would be of interest to members here!

Sometimes you discover old railway locations when you aren’t actually looking for them….and that’s exactly what happened to me yesterday!  I am on a short break with my family in Glenravel in Co. Antrim and behind the house where we are staying I saw what initially appeared to be an overgrown stone building on a laneway.  I later spotted a mirror image structure opposite the first one and quickly realised it was a pair of railway bridge abutments.  I am however quite a distance away from the former narrow gauge ‘main’ line from Ballymena to Parkmore but I knew there had been many industrial sidings in the area serving a once extensive iron ore industry, so a quick perusal of Google Earth confirmed that I had stumbled upon one of these, what a result!  I won’t have access to my own library for a few days but the owner of the house kindly let me see a comprehensive local history publication, which has a lot of information about the narrow gauge railway and the iron ore industry and from consulting this I believe the siding I have found is one which ran from Knockanully station (later renamed Martinstown) up to iron ore mines at Mount Cashel.  Local history books truly are are a ‘mine’ of information!

Sadly the iron ore industry and indeed the narrow gauge railways in this beautiful part of County Antrim are but a distant memory.