Heritage Railway Path, Portballintrae

History

The walk follows a shared-use path beside the Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Railway, a three-foot-gauge heritage line that runs for two miles along the track bed of the Giant's Causeway Tramway. The tramway was founded by the brothers William and Dr Anthony Traill of Bushmills, who won the bid to lead the development of a railway and tramline for the area in 1879-80. William Traill is credited with the idea of taking power from the River Bush, and a hydroelectric power station was built at Walkmills. The line from Portrush to Bushmills opened in 1883 and was extended to the Giant's Causeway in 1887; the Ulster Transport Museum calls it the first tram system in the world to be powered by hydroelectricity.

Power came at first from a third rail beside the track, replaced by overhead wire in 1899. When the river ran low on hot days the salmon leap took priority over the turbines and steam engines ran the cars instead, until they were phased out in the 1920s. The tramway closed at the end of the 1949 season, the cost of the maintenance and repairs it needed being one of the reasons given, and the line was dismantled. The heritage railway was built over the final two miles of the old tramway and carried its first passengers at Easter 2002.