The train that came through the wall
On 14 February 1900 a train from Enniscorthy failed to stop at Harcourt Street, ran through the buffers and the end wall, and left its engine hanging over Hatch Street below. The driver lost an arm; remarkably, nobody was killed. It’s the most dramatic moment in the life of a line that ran for just over a century and has been gone for longer than most Dubliners have been alive – yet its route is still under your feet every time you take the Luas Green Line south.
A Victorian commuter line
The Harcourt Street line opened on 10 July 1854, a 12.5-mile (20km) run from Harcourt Road out to Bray, built by William Dargan – the engineer behind much of Ireland’s early railway network. Two companies shared the work: the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway built the southern stretch from Dundrum to Bray after a smaller firm set up to build the city end ran out of money. The grand terminus on Harcourt Street itself came later, opening on 7 February 1859 to a design by George Wilkinson – a central arch flanked by a colonnade of Doric columns, set on an embankment with the platform raised above street level.
For a hundred years it carried workers into town and families out to the Wicklow coast; it’s largely why Bray grew into a seaside resort at all. The end came on 31 December 1958, when CIÉ closed the line on the cold arithmetic of operating costs – a decision still remembered as one of the worst in Irish transport history. A year before that, on 23 December 1957, two trains collided in thick fog near Dundrum, killing the driver, Andrew Larkin; it was the line’s only fatal crash.
What’s left to see
If you see one thing, make it the Nine Arches Viaduct at Milltown (the Milltown Viaduct), a stone arcade striding across the River Dodder. It survived the closure intact and now does double duty: Luas trams cross it, and a pedestrian walkway runs alongside, so you can stand on the structure and watch the Dodder Valley below. Further south, the five-arched Bride’s Glen Viaduct still spans the Loughlinstown River valley near Cherrywood.
The terminus building survives too, at 57 Harcourt Street. After the trains stopped it served as a Dunlop store and a garage; today it’s The Odeon, a bar in the old booking hall, with the colonnade and arch much as Wilkinson left them. The Luas Green Line, which reopened along the trackbed from Charlemont to Sandyford on 30 June 2004 (later extended to Brides Glen), gives the whole thing a neat irony: the line was killed for being uneconomic, then rebuilt half a century later because the corridor it left behind was too useful to waste.
Retracing the line
One honest caveat: this is not the continuous walking-and-cycling greenway some guides describe. Most of the old trackbed now carries the Luas, which you can’t walk on, so the practical way to follow the route is by tram, stepping off where there’s something to see. Around Milltown, Dundrum and the southern parkland near Carrickmines and Shankill you’ll find walkable stretches and visible remnants – embankments, bridge abutments, the odd old level crossing – but they come in fragments rather than one unbroken path.
Getting there: the northern end is at the Harcourt Luas stop, a short walk from St Stephen’s Green. Take the Green Line south for Milltown (Nine Arches), Dundrum or Brides Glen. There are no opening hours, tickets or guided tours – the public sections are free.
Parking: street parking around Harcourt Street is limited and mostly resident-restricted; the nearest options are Q-Park St Stephen’s Green or APCOA Drury Street. Public transport is the sensible choice.
Accessibility: the Luas-adjacent paths and the Nine Arches walkway are paved and step-free. Sections near disused platforms and old crossings can be uneven or overgrown, so check before bringing a wheelchair or buggy.