rails (section of)

Section of narrow gauge railway track (3 foot gauge), laid c.1959, having steel level crossing gates. Consists of iron track with iron sleepers resting on rubble stone bedding. Built by Bord na Móna to transport peat and milled peat extracted/harvested at Clonraff/Killgarvan and Bunnahinly Bogs. Located to the south of Athlone and to the northwest of Ballynahown.

Board na Mona narrow gauge railways and ancillary structures are an important element of the twentieth century industrial and economic heritage of Ireland. They are a common feature of the landscapes of the Bog of Allen, particularly in Co Westmeath, Co. Offaly, Co. Longford and Co. Kildare and are almost a type that is unique to the midlands of Ireland. They are important historical reminders of the attempts of the Irish Government(s) to create employment in the midlands and utilise peat as a natural resource on an industrial level in the mid twentieth-century and have a huge social and economic importance to the midlands as a result. The simple steel level crossing gates complete this record and add incident to the landscape to the south of Athlone. This particular railway forms part of Blackwater group of bogs (Killgarvan bog) and is used to transport milled peat to the ESB Shannonbridge Power Station in Co. Offaly to the south.