The West Clare Railway

you can but it would be a long trip. None in my town and only one mini roundabout. Traffic Warden only on tues and thurs. Kind of Utopia really.

 

Have just noticed this sequence of posts. I've always wished ardently, that I could have been around at a time / place to have been able to experience the Farranfore -- Valentia Harbour line at first-hand.

I had the good luck a year or two back, to acquire via relations who are mad book-accumulators and very generous with that which they accumulate: a venerable Ward Lock & Co. guide-book to the south-west of Ireland; undated, but internal evidence would strongly suggest the second half of the 1920s. Much fascinating rail-related material in this book (at the time, everything except the Listowel & Ballybunion Monorail was still running for passengers) -- virtually all of same, just in a practical context of getting from A to B. The book makes an exception to this, in getting quite rhapsodic about the westerly reaches of the Valentia Harbour line -- "Leaving Glenbeigh, the line ascends and, rounding the mountain, comes quite close to the coast, giving superb views of Dingle Bay and its background of lofty mountains. We continue to ascend, and at Mountain Stage (so named from its having been the stage-house in the not very remote days of cars and coaches [and they don't mean the "motor" kinds thereof !]) are on a piece of genuine mountain railway, more than 400 feet above the sea... the road and rail seem to cling to the mountain side and in places almost to overhang the sea. Here are cuttings and there a lovely gorge is crossed, with a mountain torrent rushing down through the wooded banks. After some miles we reach Kells, the highest point of the line, and overlooking a very pretty inlet of the bay. Then comes a long descent to Cahirciveen... the railway goes on some two miles... to Valencia Harbour, the most westerly station in Europe, from which a ferry crosses to Valencia Island." (The guide-book spells all these V- locations, not in the orthodox "Valentia" way of recent decades; but, the same as the city in Spain.)

If only this line had been kept -- for a while contrary to economic sense; but one envisages in it, huge potential for modern tourist-fleecing.

 

Sorry to interrupt the discussion, but back to the West Clare........

The journey along the West Clare continues. We are now firmly in the territory of what was built as the South Clare Railway. This length of the journey takes us from Quilty to Moyasta Junction. ...

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/05/05/the-west-clare-railway-part-5-quilty-to-moyasta

 

For what it is worth there are a couple of sources that might be of interest to you. Clare county library throws up a cd which might be an oral history project here

And an unpublished book

In the O’Callaghan-Westropp archive there is a dispute between him and a local priest after the priest drives into O’C-W’s car. The issue is that the priest is very very short sighted and cannot see. I had visions of a Father Jack type priest.

 

Thank you.

 

"Naah! Whats that gobshite doin' on the road!?" Lol!

 

This next post takes us to the Kilkee terminus of the West Clare Railway. We still have another arm of the journey to complete.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/05/09/the-west-clare-railway-part-6-moyasta-to-kilkee

 

We have almost reached the end of the story of the West Clare Railway and the study of its route. The post below completes the details of the remainder of the line, covering the route from Moyasta to Kilrush and Cappagh Pier. One further post will follow eventually which will look at the Locomotives and Rolling Stock on the line.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/07/0...ay-part-7-moyasta-to-kilrush-and-cappagh-pier

 

Meanwhile. . . does anyone know what is currently happening with the WCR? Their own website has been saying 'The West Clare Railway heritage museum and railway is closed to the public until further notice.' since June 2022.

 

I believe the owner has not been in the best of health recently.