Overview
The Shillelagh branch was 26.6 km of railway – 16.5 miles – that ran for less than eighty years. The Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway opened it on 22 May 1865, and it was known as the ‘Fitzwilliam Line’ because the 6th Earl FitzWilliam of the nearby Coollattin Estate had given much of the land it was built on. It carried goods and passengers through south Wicklow until passenger and goods traffic ceased on 24 April 1944; the line closed altogether on 20 April 1945, though the stretch from Woodenbridge to Aughrim kept going for stone traffic until May 1953, and part of the branch lay in place until 1965.
What is left of it you can walk. In September 2007 the community opened the Tinahely Railway Walk along a surviving length of the trackbed, and it is now one of the most accessible short walks in County Wicklow.
Walking the old trackbed
The main walk is 2.3 km – flat, as you’d expect of a railway, and surfaced well enough for wheelchairs and sturdy buggies. It runs beside the Derry River through farmland and quiet woodland and ends at Tomnafinnoge Woods, with a car park at each end and picnic tables along the way. Dogs are welcome, on a leash.
A second, 2 km leg extends the walk from the Tinahely car park towards Aughrim, bringing the total to about five kilometres. Set your expectations to match: this is a short, gentle there-and-back on an old line, not a long-distance greenway. A further phase to extend it is in the final stages of planning. The extension was 75% funded by County Wicklow Partnership through the European rural-development fund, with the rest raised locally – the kind of stitched-together funding that keeps small community trails alive.
What’s left of the railway
The locomotives and wires are long gone, but the line’s footprint is still legible in the valley. At Shillelagh, the old station building has been converted into a private house. Along the walk the trackbed runs level between hedgerows and grazing land, with the Aughrim River and the Derry River carving through the valley nearby. With no motor traffic, what you hear is the river, the birds, and the odd train on the main Dublin–Rosslare line beyond.
Practical information
- Cost: free, and open year-round – there is no gate on a community trackbed.
- Parking: free car parks at both ends of the walk, at Tinahely and at the Tomnafinnoge Woods end.
- Accessibility: the main surfaced sections take wheelchairs and pushchairs; edges near the river turn muddy after heavy rain, so wear sturdy shoes if you stray off the path.
- Dogs: welcome, on a leash.
- Map: a downloadable route map is on the Tinahely community website.
Making a day of it
The walk pairs well with the Avoca Handweaving Mill and the riverside village of Avoca, both a short drive off. For the estate history behind the railway, the Coollattin Estate runs guided tours that take in the same FitzWilliam story.
Park at either end – Tinahely or the Tomnafinnoge Woods car park – and go early for the valley light; watch out for the old stone culverts and brick retaining walls that still line the route, quiet leftovers of the engineering that once kept the line running.