rails (section of)

Permanent narrow gauge Bord na Mona railway line, erected c.1952, for transporting turf to the Ballivor Processing Plant, Co Meath. Now only used to transport carriages brought in for servicing. Constructed of steel I beams. Railway line is three foot wide and is laid in ten yard sections. Level crossing to main road comprises concrete piers with steel cross bars. Much of the earlier permanent narrow gauge is overgrown by vegetation. Located to the east of Raharney, close to the border with County Meath.

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 and concrete level gates complete this record and add incident to the bog landscape.