The Garristown Railway

“The said Railway will pass through or into…the Bed and Foreshore of the Swords Estuary and the Townlands of Malahide and Yellow Walls in the Parish of Malahide…”¹

Plans to construct a canal in 1788 running from Malahide to Fieldstown in county Meath were never fully realised due to the death of its benefactor Lord Richard Talbot. Another major infrastructure project that never came to fruition was a proposed railway line from Malahide to Garristown, a village just over 15 miles from Malahide in north west Fingal.

The proposal¹ was initiated by the Malahide and Garristown Railway Company (Limited), first in 1894 and again in 1897. The plan was to construct an extension or spur from the existing Dublin-Drogheda line, opened in 1844. The line would operate as both a passenger and freight service.

In the original planning application the line was envisaged to run from “a field the property of the Great Northern (Ireland) Railway Company and adjoining the down passenger platform at a point 130 yards or thereabouts from the North-Western abutment of the arch of the bridge at Malahide station…and terminating in the Townland of Garristown, Parish of Garristown.” The “down” platform is the one beside the line running northwards, so the line would have originated in the lands on which the Casino cottage and apartments now stand.

La Mancha, late 19th Century. The avenue of trees running away from the house leads to a tree-topped mound at the top of the map (encircled). The remains of this mound are visible today in the Ard Na Mara estate. © Ordnance Survey Ireland/Government of Ireland.5

Map showing Malahide railway station at the time the Garristown line was proposed. © Ordnance Survey Ireland/Government of Ireland.³

According to the application the line would then have passed through “the Bed and Foreshore of the Swords Estuary (Broadmeadow estuary) and the Townlands of Malahide and Yellow Walls in the parish of Malahide…” It would then have passed through about 30 other townlands in Fingal before terminating in Garristown.

Possible route of the Malahide to Garristown railway, proposed in 1897

Route of the proposed Malahide to Garristown railway line, 1897

Opposition to the proposal, mainly from the Great Northern Railway Company which operated the Dublin-Drogheda line, ensured that the project never went ahead.²

Sources

1. The Irish Times, February 11, 1897.

2. Papers by Command, House of Commons, Volume 47. H.M. Stationery Office, 1908.

3. Ordnance Survey Of Ireland 25″ Map: online. Reproduced under licence from Ordnance Survey of Ireland; Licence No. NE 0000414.