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Belturbet Railway Station, Belturbet Co Cavan, Ireland

Railway Road, Belturbet, Co. Cavan.
Tel: 049 9522074 or 087 689 4808 / 087 2639764
Email: belturbetcommunity@gmail.com                                                  
Web: www.belturbetheritagerailway.com
Facebook: Belturbet Heritage Railway Station – Home | Facebook and DiscoverBelturbet

Belturbet Railway Station which opened in 1885 was built and operated by the Great Northern Railway Company of Ireland. The station served as the connecting point for the Great Northern Railway broad gauge and the Cavan and Leitrim Railway narrow gauge railway lines and accommodated both railway companies until its closure in 1959. The station was built entirely of locally sourced stone and is reputed to be the only Grade 1 station constructed entirely of cut stone.

The station buildings lay derelict for almost 40 years until the Belturbet Community Development Association purchased the entire 10 acre site in 1995. The buildings had during that time served as farmyard buildings and had been subjected to the effects of weather, fire and theft. They were subsequently refurbished to the original state with great attention to detail gained by reference to original plans drawn on silk.

The original / restored Station Buildings include:

  • Main Station Building and Station Master’s House
  • Platform (Roof totally replaced)
  • Great Northern Railway Goods Shed (Extension added to the original building. Attempts had been made to remove part of the original building for safety reasons prior to restoration)
  • Cavan and Leitrim Railway Goods Shed (Effectively no restoration needed)
  • Engine Shed
  • Water Tower
  • Transhipment Shed

The Main Station Building contains a museum hosting an interesting collection of railway memorabilia and audiovisual footage of the Cavan and Leitrim railway and the restoration of the station itself.

The Great Northern Railway Goods Shed serves as a 120 person capacity conference hall and is used for business, social, sport, leisure and educational/training purposes. Goods Store / Visitor Centre meeting & conference room facilities for rent. Halls are central to the town, heated and have kitchen facilities. Plenty of parking space. Cost for hire of Goods Store is 20euro first hour, 10euro per hour thereafter and the Visitors Centre is 15euro for first hour and 7.50euro thereafter. Block bookings can be negotiated

For booking enquiries contact us on 049 9522074 Or 087 689 4808 or 087 2639764

New facilities include an 11 unit apartment block, an all-weather Astro-turf pitch and another building which has not yet been fully completed.

A number of railway rolling stock items are located at the Railway Station and a number of events are hosted on the site.

Tours of the station:

Further information relating to the Belturbet Railway Station and related heritage aspects can be sought by contacting the above numbers. The Railway Museum is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday 12pm-5pm, a great family visit followed by a lovely river walk.

******Railway closed during Winter months*******

Belturbert Railway Station tour can be booked for groups and can tailored to suit your needs. The tour ends with tea/coffee, a scone and a sit down in our delightful ‘Goods store’ centre. €5 per person per tour (based on ten persons per group).

Length of tour: 1 – 1.5 hour tour and booking essential. Tel: 086 069 9749

Intertesting link: Belturbet Railway and Vintage Restoration Association club

Would you like to support our fundraising ?

Fundraiser by Belturbet Heritage Railway Company : Belturbet Heritage Railway Fundraiser (gofundme.com)

One of the main attractions at the Railway Station are the Museum Tours which are run by the volunteers of the Belturbet Heritage Railway( B.H.R.). B.H.R have so many exciting plans and ideas on how to continually develop the Station Museum and what it can offer to visitors.

To turn our plans into reality we require €20,000 to purchase railtrack (including haulage) from Bord na Mona that we have recently been allocated.

The plan is to run 100 metres of narrow gauge adjacent to the platform and run our engine on this. Afterwards a much larger project entails laying 500M of narrow gauge and 500M of broad gauge Great Northern track along with 500M of Velorail on the narrow gauge track.
Engines and carriages will run on both lines which will greatly enhance the offering of the tour of the Railway Museum and attract more visitors and tourists to the Railway and to the town of Belturbet.

Unfortunately since the Covid 19 pandemic all tours of the Railway Museum have stopped which is one of the main sources of income for the Heritage Group. 

We are hoping that with the help of the local community and friends of Belturbet who are far and near that we could reach our target in order to purchase the track and continue our work in developing the Station in bringing it back to its former glory

All donations would be greatly appreciated and we would love to welcome you all to the Belturbet Railway Station when we are allowed to re-open.

(Belturbet Railway Station closed in 1959 and over the years turned into a dilapidated site. In 1993 the old Railway Station in Belturbet was purchased by the local community group Belturbet Community Development Association for the community. From 1996 to 1999 the station was lovingly restored and since then it has been in the heart of the community in Belturbet being used as a facility for events, meetings and local groups as well as being a tourist attraction.)

Below is a photo from 1951 which shows the engines from the Cavan & Leitrim (left) and The Great Northern (right). We plan to replicate these tracks  from the money we hope to fundraise and to then have engines and carriages running on them. 

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On the map below the red lines indicate where the tracks will be laid and where engines will run .

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