Cootehill: II

Cootehill Railway Station Entrance Front (Image: Timothy Ferres, 2020)

After breakfast on Saturday morning I wandered from Bridge Street, in Cootehill, County Cavan, to the wide main street (Market Street).

I passed the Methodist and Presbyterian churches on Bridge Street, before turning left at Market Street.

The old manse between two churches (Image: postcard)

The old photograph above, taken from a postcard of about 1900, shows the Methodist church to the left; the old manse in the middle; and the present Presbyterian church to the right.

I happened to be peering in through the window of the former White Horse Hotel, in Market Street, when somebody from across the road hailed me.

I couldn't quite hear him, so crossed the road to the post office, where he was awaiting a bulky item, to have a word with him.

Kevin, it transpired, was as interested in heritage as myself, and we chatted for awhile about this and that.

He explained that he was a local man, though had lived in Michigan, USA, for a number of years; and that was where he had met his wife (he was collecting a parcel for their daughter).

Concrete shed on the former railway track (Image: Timothy Ferres, 2020)

Kevin invited me to get into his car, and took me to see the old railway station outside the town, now a livestock market (there's a long livestock shed where the railway line used to be, outside the station).

The former Cootehill Railway Station is less than a mile from the town.

It would have been convenient for Bellamont Forest and Dartrey.

The railway line must have passed through land belonging to Lords Bellamont and Dartrey.

Platform Front ca 1900 (Image: postcard)

The station, operated by the Dundalk and Enniskillen Railway (later amalgamated with the Great Northern Railway), opened in 1860.

Cootehill railway station was on a spur off the Enniskillen-to-Dundalk line, from near Ballybay through Rockcorry and terminating at Cootehill.

It closed down less than a century later, in 1947.

This handsome little railway station remains in good order, having been restored to some extent by its present owner.

It was built in the Early English Gothic-Revival style, and comprises five bays and two storeys.

The entrance and platform fronts differ slightly in design.

Unfortunately I was unable to take a photograph of the platform front because it’s obscured by a concrete shed (not to say private).

I had intended walking back to the town from the railway station, though Kevin offered me a lift back, and took me past the location of the old Church of Ireland parish church in Church Street, which was abandoned about 1818 for the present church, All Saints, in Market Street).

First published in August, 2020).