Stationed somewhere special in Clonakilty, West Cork

The sandstone-faced Victorian rail station which served Clonakilty rolls to market, says Tommy Barker.   

Clonakilty’s Station House has a long and proud West Cork history, and was intimately involved in the coastal town’s comings and goings for almost 80 years.

The rail line, which opened in the 1880s, was shut down in 1961, with the tracks ripped up and the sleepers sold off to Nigeria, but the glory days of rail and its preeminence are recalled still in the Model Railway Village, one of the town’s biggest tourist draws, set up over 20 years ago.