Qualla: Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Railway

Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Railway: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David A. Victor at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. There is a sound the engines make on the return run that the volunteers describe with one word: bark. The two-mile descent from the upper terminus near the Causeway Hotel runs out across ancient sand dunes toward the River Bush, and the gradient is just steep enough that the steam engines have to work going back. The line is three feet wide. It is younger than it looks and older than it knows. It carried its first passengers at Easter 2002. It runs on the trackbed of a railway that opened in 1883 and called itself, with some justification, the first long electric tramway in the world.

Image: David A. Victor at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Railway: The First Long Electric Tramway

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lindy Buckley from Nanjing, China, CC BY 2.0. The Giant's Causeway, Portrush and Bush Valley Railway and Tramway Company opened to Bushmills on 29 January 1883 and extended to the Causeway on 1 July 1887. Its promoter was W. A. Traill. Its power was hydroelectricity from the River Bush, delivered through an elevated third ra...

Image: Lindy Buckley from Nanjing, China | CC BY 2.0

Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Railway: A Tourist Line at Shane's Castle

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ryan kirk, CC BY-SA 3.0. Heritage railways are made from leftovers. The new line uses equipment that Lord O'Neill had originally assembled for a tourist railway at Shane's Castle, County Antrim, a private operation that closed in 1994. David Laing led the campaign to repurpose that material on the old Ca...

Image: Ryan kirk | CC BY-SA 3.0

Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Railway: A DMU and a Pair of Locomotives

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wilson Adams, CC BY-SA 2.0. In July 2010 the railway took delivery of a specially built diesel multiple unit from Severn Lamb of the UK - four coaches, capacity for ninety passengers, powered by a Kubota engine. The unit was designed to recreate, as far as a modern build can, the passenger experience of the...

Image: Wilson Adams | CC BY-SA 2.0

Giant's Causeway and Bushmills Railway: Bushfoot Strand and the Golf Course

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Albert Bridge, CC BY-SA 2.0. The upper station sits just below the Causeway Hotel with a single platform and traditional buildings. From there the line drops toward Bushfoot Strand, where the engines bark on the way home. It then runs through ancient sand dunes to the River Bush, where a newly installed brid...

Image: Albert Bridge | CC BY-SA 2.0