Former station for sale
DONEGAL'S remotest station is up for sale at offers over €299,000. Cashelangor station, on the long-closed 3ft gauge Letterkenny & Burtonport Extension Railway (L&BER), is being sold by by its current owners, Jacqueline and Gavin Kelly, who bought the thenderelict building in 2017, sensitively restored it to showcase its railway heritage, and opened it as self-catering holiday accommodation.
The three-bedroom station house, which comes with a self-contained flat within the former waiting room and ticket office, was built in 1902 for the opening of the line between Falcarragh and Gweedore the following year.
Operated by the Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway Company, the line carried fish from Burtonport, emigrants to the boats for Scotland and the USA at Londonderry, and thousands of tons of turf for use across Ireland from the extensive bogs around the station during the Second World War. During the Irish war of Independence and the ensuing civil war, Cashelnagor saw Free State and Crown forces engaging with the local IRA which often attacked trains at this remote location under the shadow of Errigal, Donegal's highest mountain.
The line closed in 1947 with the track lifted in 1949 and the last railway family leaving the station house in 1954, although the station was cosmetically restored in 1992 for filming of The Railway Station Man, starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland.
The Kellys had planned to lay track at the platform and to commission a replica L&BER steam locomotive for display at the site, but they hope that whoever buys the station will preserve its railway heritage.
The entire trackbed between Letterkenny and Burtonport is scheduled to be turned into a greenway, connecting existing sections at Burtonport, Falcarragh and Creeslough, so that Cashelnagor will also be included in the reopened railway right-of-way.
Full details of the station sale are available at www.sherryfitz.ie