In 1 840, one man transformed travel In BrItaIn and Ireland.
HIs name was George Bradshaw,
and hIs raIlway guIdes InspIred the VIctorIans to take to the tracks.
Stop by stop,
he told them where to travel,
what to see and where to stay.
Now, 1 70 years later,
I'm makIng a serIes ofjourneys across the length and breadth of these Islands
to see what of Bradshaw's world remaIns.
I'm in the middIe of a deIightfuI journey that iII take me
from the RepubIic of IreIand into Northern IreIand,
foIIoing my Bradshaw's GuIde
across tracks that were Iaid in the 19th century,
when there was one IreIand, Iiving under the reign of Queen Victoria.
On thIs leg, I'll be unravellIng the mystery of Ireland's pagan past...
That is a most extraordinary set of stones.
I suppose, Stonehenge-Iike.
..seeIng the technology used by VIctorIan stargazers...
Now, John, that I do recognise as a teIescope.
..and travellIng on a 19th-century country raIlway,
lovIngly restored to lIfe.
I might think I was in the wrong pIace,
if it weren't for the teII-taIe drift of smoke.
I'm almost halfway through explorIng the hIstory of 19th-century Ireland.
HavIng seen the raIlways' bIrthplace In DublIn,
I'm followIng theIr expansIon north,
towards the IndustrIal powerhouse of BeIfast
and my fInal destInatIon of Derry/Londonderry.
BegInnIng In Dundalk, thIs stretch takes me over the border,
where I'll see how thIs regIon's complex hIstory
has shaped the raIlways, fInIshIng up In rural County Down.
I'II be getting off at DundaIk in search of what my Bradshaw's GuIde caIIs
''rude vestiges of antiquity, which consist of earthworks,
chiefIy designed for sepuIchraI purposes,
cromIechs, and other reIics of pre-Christian ages,
stiII numerous and in severaI instances extremeIy curious.''
And that has, indeed, excited my curiosity.
The cromlechs referred to In my guIdebook means ''crooked stones''.
One of Ireland's fInest examples Is close to Dundalk.
I'm gettIng off at Dundalk's VIctorIan statIon,
desIgned by the famous engIneer WIllIam HemIngway MIlls,
and opened In 1 894.
What a beautifuI station.
DundaIk, wonderfuIIy preseRVed and beautifuIIy kept,
ith its IoveIy fIowers, just Iooking great on a summer's day.
The VIctorIans were fascInated and somewhat obsessed by death.
AncIent pagan monuments lIke cromlechs, whIch honoured and Interred the dead,
drew artIsts and scIentIsts alIke to these mystIcal stones.
In Bradshaw's day,
tourIsts from Dundalk could stroll up from the statIon,
but, to follow In theIr footsteps,
I'm usIng a more modern form of transport.
The cromIech I want to visit is on the edge of a goIf course,
so a buggy is the way to go.
NormaI train seRVice iII be resumed when possibIe.
The cromlech Is easy to spot, standIng out Incongruously amongst the goIfers.
WeII, that is a most extraordinary set of stones.
I suppose, Stonehenge-Iike.
No idea what it does, what it is.
Hugh Smyth knows the story of thIs curIous structure.
- Hugh. This is a cromIech, is it? - It's a cromIech, yes.
And what is a cromIech?
(Hugh) It's actuaIIy an ancient tomb, dating back to the NeoIithic peopIe,
approximateIy 4,500 to 5,000 years ago.
This is where they wouId have buried their peopIe.
- That's extraordinariIy oId. - OIder than Stonehenge.
OIder than the pyramids of Egypt.
The stones' true purpose hasn't always been understood.
They've even found a place In IrIsh mythology as a bed for gIants.
WhIle some VIctorIans correctly assocIated them wIth tombs,
others belIeved they were used for human sacrIfIce.
My Bradshaw's GuIde describes it as ''curious''.
I think the Victorians did actuaIIy find it interesting, didn't they?
They found it very interesting, because they had resurrected
a beIief and an interest
in spirituaIity and paganism.
They wouId have come here, on many occasions,
to Iook at this curiosity.
In the 19th century, poets and artIsts of the RomantIc movement
harked back to pre-IndustrIal Innocence
and were fascInated by ancIent belIefs.
But at the same tIme
the VIctorIans were makIng great strIdes In scIentIfIc study.
The foundatIons of modern archaeology were laId,
whIle geologIsts began to unlock the secrets of rocks.
Hugh, these are cIearIy massive stones. What do we know about them?
We know that the three standing stones are native to the mountains here.
The top capping stone is not native to here at aII.
It is native to the Mourne mountains,
which Iie across CarIingford Lough in County Down.
A theory Is that these ancIent people
transported thIs 46-tonne stone more than ten mIles,
brIngIng It across the 2.5 mIle-wIde Lough, usIng rafts.
It tops what was once probably the rocky gateway
to a much bIgger structure, covered In earth or stones.
VIctorIan vIsItors could test theIr skIll here,
spurred on by a local legend.
If you can manage to Iand a stone on top,
good Iuck iII foIIow you aII the days of your Iife.
That's weII worth trying for, isn't it?
Yes. You have to try.
- BriIIiant! - Very weII done!
I thInk It's tIme for me to quIt whIle I'm ahead and return to the raIls.
I'm back at DundaIk Station,
cIose to something which didn't exist in Bradshaw's time, the border.
But whose existence, from the earIy part of the 20th century,
mightiIy affected raiI seRVices and peopIe Iiving either side of it.
In Bradshaw's day, the UnIted Kingdom of Great BrItaIn
and Ireland was a sIngle state, governed from WestmInster.
As the 19th century drew on, calls grew for IrIsh Independence,
but those demands met dogged resIstance, especIally In the north.
In 1922, after decades of sometImes vIolent dIspute,
the IrIsh Free State was establIshed,
but Northern Ireland remaIned part of the UnIted Kingdom.
Suddenly, the Island of Ireland was dIvIded by an InternatIonal border
and Dundalk became a frontIer town.
RetIred statIon master Brendan McQuaId
Is showIng me how thIs left Its mark on the statIon.
I'm guessing this gate is of some historic significance?
It's very significant, yes.
That fence there was erected in 1922.
PeopIe disembarking had to be customs cIeared here at DundaIk.
So this gate was cIosed aII aIong.
That barrier ran the whoIe Iength of the station.
PeopIe couIdn't exit the station untiI they had been cIeared by the customs.
PartItIon changed lIfe overnIght for people lIvIng near the border.
A shoppIng trIp to BeIfast became an InternatIonaljourney.
Border controls were set up
and duty levIed on goods brought across the frontIer.
For raIlway passengers, that meant customs offIcers searchIng the traIn.
So, what sort of things were they Iooking for?
Anything.
VirtuaIIy everything that was bought in the north wouId be dutiabIe here.
Things Iike butter were cheaper in the north than the south,
so peopIe going to visit in the north brought back butter ith them.
Copies of the News Of The World, which wasn't soId this side of the border.
Tide washing powder, Mars Bars, anything.
It wasn't untIl the 1990s and the creatIon of the SIngle European Market,
that the customs controls were removed.
For the people of Dundalk, they were a way of lIfe for 70 years.
What did peopIe think of it?
PeopIe were very disgruntIed, MichaeI, and very annoyed.
Of course, they did everything that they possibIy couId to hide the goods.
The stories that we hear about peopIe hanging goods
from the door handIes of trains, Iadies buying cIothes in the north,
putting them on top of the cIothes they were wearing going down.
As regards what peopIe thought about it,
there was nothing they couId reaIIy do about it.
It was the system at the time and peopIe just accepted it.
PartItIon faIled to brIng peace to the regIon.
WIth the advent of the so-called Troubles In the late 1960s,
securIty was tIghtened further and servIces were often dIsrupted
as the raIlway lIne became a target.
How Iong might the interruptions Iast?
Some might onIy Iast two or three hours,
depending on where the device was supposed to be.
I remember one Christmas, around 1980, and it went on for about three weeks.
The raiIway Iine was cIosed for approximateIy three weeks.
That was the Iongest that we had.
The express servIce from DublIn to BeIfast was renamed the EnterprIse
In 1947 and I'm about to experIence
just how seamless crossIng the border has become.
- HeIIo, are you the station master? - Yes. Anthony Monaghan is my name.
I'm taking the Enterprise in a moment.
When I get to the border, what iII I notice?
There's actuaIIy no reaI difference in the crossover.
There's a signaI post and the signaIs change.
There's no signage, it's just straight on in.
So, when I go over the border, I'm going to change country,
I'm going to change currency.
You use kiIometres here in the RepubIic, they use miIes in the North.
But there's no stopping, just straight through?
Straight through, yes. Straight into Newry and then, as you say, that's it.
Do I need that?
Oh, you won't need your passport, you're OK.
- Just aII the way through? - AII the way through.
A great reIief. Thank you.
- No probIem, MichaeI, thank you. - I Iove your station.
The Enterprise. Beam me north.
My next statIon Isjust 15 mIles and 20 mInutes away
There's barely a clue that I'm crossIng a frontIer.
This is the Enterprise crossing the border.
I've had a wonderfuI time in the RepubIic, so, fareweII, RepubIic,
I'm going back to the United Kingdom.
I don't need my Euros any more. I can put them away.
My Northern Ireland adventure begIns at the fIrst stop north of the border.
Newry Station. So, my journey continues now in Northern IreIand.
It's tIme for me to fInd my bed for the nIght
and I'm headIng out towards the east coast
In search of a slIce of RaIlway Age opulence.
Unfortunately, It's no longer possIble to get there by traIn,
so It's the bus for me.
Buses are aII very fine, but when you're on them, you do miss the train.
My busjourney Is takIng me towards the seasIde resort of Newcastle,
backed by the splendour of the Mourne mountaIns.
In the 19th century, raIlway buIlders had grand plans
to transform thIs town Into a magnet for the tourIst.
The oId raiIway station at NewcastIe County Down has no more trains.
But the raiIways have Ieft their mark on the pIace
in the form of this 19th-century resort hoteI, the SIieve Donard.
This is where I'II spend the night.
ThIs ornate VIctorIan hotel was buIlt
by the BeIfast and County Down RaIlway Company and opened In 1 898.
The hope was to lure busInessmen from BeIfast to a luxurIous retreat,
and before I turn In, I want to hear about the hotel's heyday
from manager John Toner.
What was the standard of accommodation when it opened?
Very high. Every room had its own fire
and it had the highest pubIic areas, Iike biIIiard rooms.
It aIso had a draing room, reading rooms and writing rooms.
There were Turkish baths and hot seawater baths.
It reaIIy Iaid the path weII.
And wonderfuI views of mountain and sea?
Yes, it's in the heart of Dundrum Bay, Iooking out to the Irish Sea.
You can see it to your Ieft. On a cIear day, you can see ScotIand to your right.
You can see the IsIe Of Man.
I think I've chosen weII. I'II sIeep weII, ith this wonderfuI sea air.
- I'm sure you iII. - Thank you.
- Good night. - Bye.
After a good nIght's rest, It's tIme for me to rejoIn my route.
An upIifting view of sea and mountain puts a spring in my step,
as I go back to the raiIs.
I've retraced my steps to Newry, to contInue my journey north.
It's had a statIon ever sInce 1 855, but the latest IncarnatIon
Is thIs modern buIldIng, opened just two years ago.
Newry Station has the feeIing of an airport terminaI.
Very new indeed.
HeIIo, how you doing? Oh, you're for BeIfast?
Yes, going to Portadown.
PIatform Two. The train's coming in now, OK?
Upstairs, over the bridge.
- Thanks. Bye. - Bye.
Once agaIn, I'm travellIng on one of the smart express traIns
that speed between DublIn and BeIfast.
But traIn travel hasn't always been thIs comfortable, or thIs safe.
I don't know about you, but when I get on a train,
I never think about the possibiIity of an accident.
But Iet's face it. Over nearIy two centuries of raiIway history,
there have been some appaIIing disasters.
The consoIation, perhaps, is that the worst of those
Iead to improvements in procedures and reguIations.
I'm leavIng the traIn at Portadown.
These days, It's as close as you can get by raIl to Armagh,
the sIte of one of the 19th century's most shockIng accIdents.
Track Inspector Urban Magee has been researchIng the story.
- Urban, heIIo. - HeIIo, MichaeI. PIeased to meet you.
It's good to see you. I'm interested in the Armagh raiI disaster of 1889.
It's gone down in history. What was the cause of it?
What happened was, there was a Iarge number of passengers
coming out of the train at Armagh, in 1889.
As a resuIt, they put extra coaches on the train.
The engine provided wasn't capabIe of puIIing the train up the hiII,
coming out of Armagh Station, so the train staIIed
and the driver decided to hook the first four coaches off the train
and bring those on to a nearby station.
At the tIme, carrIages dIdn't have theIr own contInuous brakIng system,
so to stop the remaInIng eIght coaches rollIng down the hIll,
the crew placed stones beneath the wheels.
It was a technIque that was to prove fatal.
When he had come back, the stones had crushed from underneath the wheeIs
of the rear eight and they had roIIed back down the hiII into Armagh Station
and coIIided ith a train coming out.
How big was the disaster?
At that time, 88 peopIe died. SeveraI hundred were injured.
There was a totaI of 1200 passengers on board the train.
It was Ireland's worst dIsaster sInce the bIrth of the raIlways
and revealed some serIous flaws In the system.
WouId the signaIman not have known the train hadn't cIeared out of the patch,
when he aIIowed the next train through?
No. At that time, that section of track was controIIed by time inteRVaI.
So, the signaIman just Iet the train out at a certain amount of time,
usuaIIy an hour after the other train had Ieft.
He was confident that train had Ieft the portion of track and it hadn't.
Soon after the dIsaster, an Act of ParlIament was passed
requIrIng raIlway companIes to Introduce better brakIng and sIgnallIng
and settIng In traIn raIlway safety features that we now take for granted.
A modern sIgnal box contaIns sophIstIcated technology
desIgned to ensure that such an accIdent could not recur.
On this board, I wouId stiII be abIe to see
these different sections of Iine controIIed by a signaIman?
Yep. There's bIock sections aII aIong this paneI here.
Trains wouId not be permitted to pass this signaI,
unIess the section of Iine is cIear.
So, I guess, when we have these reaIIy appaIIing disasters,
in the worst cases at Ieast,
some kind of good comes out of it, some improvement?
WeII, there's usuaIIy Iessons Iearned from everything.
Armagh lost Its statIon In the 1950s, but my 19th-century guIde
gIves the town's fIne buIldIngs an approvIng revIew.
It sIngles out ''the well-organIsed observatory,
contaInIng transIt, zenIth sector, mural cIrcle, telescope,
electro-meter, etcetera''.
As telescope Is the only word I recognIse, I've come to look for that,
helped by observatory lIbrarIan, John McFarland.
He's leadIng me to the observatory's oldest Instrument,
one of the very few such devIces left In the world.
What a magnificent object, John.
Yes, this is the so-caIIed Troughton EquatoriaI TeIescope,
manufactured in 1 795
by the firm of John & Edward Troughton, of London.
Here's the actuaI teIescope. Quite smaII by modern standards, of course.
But Iarge enough for the purposes of the astronomer in those days,
working out positions of stars on the sky.
The observatory was founded In 1 789 by the ArchbIshop of Armagh,
RIchard RobInson,
who had a vIsIon of turnIng Armagh Into a unIversIty town.
And hIs observatory, thereafter,
pushed forward our understandIng of the unIverse.
The Victorians were very keen on acquiring scientific knoledge.
- Did it have a practicaI vaIue? - Indeed it did, MichaeI.
The work of the astronomer in those days
was caIcuIating the positions of stars on the sky,
for the use of navigators and saiIors.
For exampIe, in crossing the vast oceans,
you had to know exactIy where you were, otherwse you couId crash into rocks
or be miIes out at the end of your journey.
MappIng the stars was a mammoth task that kept the astronomers busy
for most of the 19th century.
But In the mId-1 800s
thIs vItal project was threatened by a proposed new raIlway.
You had to have absoIute steadiness in your instruments.
They couIdn't move, in any way, whiIe you were making your obseRVations.
The astronomers feared that vIbratIons from passIng traIns
would ruIn theIr results.
Although they couldn't prevent the arrIval of the raIls In Armagh,
observatory dIrector Thomas RobInson
successfully blocked the lIne from comIng wIthIn 700 yards of the buIldIng.
In your professionaI opinion, wouId that be a safe distance?
No. I think Robinson eventuaIIy regretted that short distance.
He thought it shouId have been much further,
once he had compIeted his experiments
on the disturbing forces of the Iocomotives.
DespIte theIr precautIons, the astronomers ended up throwIng out
a great many results due to vIbratIons from traIns.
LuckIly, It dIdn't force the observatory to close.
Astronomers here today work on state-of-the-art astrophysIcs.
But they haven't entIrely abandoned theIr VIctorIan Instruments.
Now, John, that I do recognise as a teIescope. What vintage is this?
(John) This dates from 1885.
It was buiIt by the firm of Howard Grubb, of DubIin.
This is the teIescope we'd use nowadays for making our visuaI obseRVations.
- (MIchael) You're stiII using it today? - Very much so.
As and when the weather permits, of course.
For exampIe, you can rotate the dome here right around,
by puIIing on this rope over here.
- May I have a go? - Yes, pIease do.
(MIchael) That operates amazingIy smoothIy, doesn't it?
- (John) Yes, it's cooperating today. - That's a great design in itseIf.
But I'm just so impressed that you're stiII using a teIescope
which is, Iet's face it, nearIy as oId as my Bradshaw's, and just as usefuI.
Yes, indeed.
For the last leg of my journey, I'm takIng a detour from my route.
I've been followIng the maInlIne that lInks DublIn and BeIfast,
but In Bradshaw's day, there were other, smaller lInes
radIatIng from the Island's second cIty.
I've come to the County Down countrysIde
to see what's left of a celebrated VIctorIan servIce.
(cow moos)
A remote pIatform, set amongst fieIds and cows.
I might think I was in the wrong pIace,
if it weren't for the teII-taIe drift of smoke.
I'm catchIng a steam traIn on the DownpatrIck and County Down RaIlway.
It's Northern Ireland's only full-sIze herItage lIne
and It runs on a route created In Bradshaw's day.
The orIgInal BeIfast & County Down RaIlway
was buIlt by the famous engIneer WIllIam Dargan,
the man behInd Ireland's very fIrst raIlway, back In 1 834.
But lIke so many IrIsh lInes, It's had a chequered hIstory.
En route to DownpatrIck,
I'm gettIng the story from volunteer Robert GardIner.
Was this buiIt for passengers or freight?
Passengers. The BeIfast And County Down RaiIway was primariIy a commuter Iine.
This Iine to Downpatrick was specificaIIy for the IegaI profession,
so that judges and barristers couId get from the crown court in BeIfast
down to the courthouse here in Downpatrick,
which was a major IegaI centre in the county.
A siIky-smooth ride for them?
AbsoIuteIy. If you compare the stagecoach ride from BeIfast
in smaII, pitted roads
versus this brand-new maRVeI of wondrous technoIogy,
there wouId be no comparison.
But the lawyers had to waIt for theIr commuter lIne.
The route was fIrst proposed In 1 845,
when Ireland was In the grIp of the Great FamIne,
whIch began wIth the potato blIght
and went on to kIll around a mIllIon people.
There's a myth that UIster wasn't as badIy affected
as the rest of the isIand of IreIand was.
But it was affected and the Irish famine did have a severe impact
on the construction of this Iine.
The famIne delayed constructIon of the lIne for a decade.
But by the end of the 19th century,
Ireland's raIlways had spread ImpressIvely.
They reached theIr zenIth In the 1920s,
when the Island was crIss-crossed by nearly 3,500 mIles of track.
But It wasn't to last.
(MIchael) When did this IoveIy Iine cIose to the pubIic?
1950. It was one of the first Iines in Northern IsIand to be cIosed.
The Iine had been run into the ground during the Second WorId War.
At that time, the Stormont government decided
it wasn't worth the whiIe keeping it open.
''And we'II cIose it. Sure, buses iII do the work instead.''
ThIs pattern was repeated across the land.
Today, fewer than haIf the lInes In use at the peak remaIn In servIce.
Here In County Down, the track was lIfted
and It was thought that the lIne was hIstory,
untIl, In the 1980s, a group of enthusIasts decIded to revIve It.
1982, that was a pretty troubIed moment in the history of Northern IreIand.
It was at the height of the TroubIes, and, I suppose,
it wouId be an unIikeIy time for a heritage raiIway to be set up.
I think we were just Iucky, in terms of the poIitics of this area
were very favourabIe to promoting tourism
and, basicaIIy getting on ith Iife, at that time,
and ensuring that something kept going on, beyond the TroubIes.
The herItage project had a slow start,
wIth lIttle fundIng and barely any facIlItIes.
Now It's popular wIth DownpatrIck's tourIsts.
They come to where St PatrIck,
who Introduced ChrIstIanIty to Ireland, Is belIeved to be burIed.
The herItage lIne Is run entIrely by volunteers lIke Robert,
who do everythIng from drIvIng traIns to restorIng vIntage coaches.
Oh, dear, this is a poor oId wreck of a thing, isn't it?
(Robert) It is, but it's pretty much a gem in our coIIection.
We found it in a fieId near HiIIsborough,
being used as a chicken house.
But if I mentioned the names King George V, King George VI
and King Edward VII and a bunch of chickens,
what do you think they'd have in common?
- They aII used this carriage? - They've aII used this carriage.
This was the BeIfast & County Down RaiIway's royaI saIoon.
It was buiIt in 1897, for Queen Victoria's jubiIee.
And, one day, you iII restore it, to regaI spIendour.
It's a labour of love for the volunteers
and remInds us of the raIlways' Important part
In thIs regIon's hIstory.
For the first time, my raiIway journey
has taken me across an internationaI border.
During my Iifetime, reIations across that border have been strained
and raiI seRVices have been disrupted by poIiticaI issues.
But, since Bradshaw's day, whenever peopIes were abIe to Iive at peace,
the train was there to smooth trade
and to Iink famiIies and friends.
On the next leg of my journey, I'll be takIng a step back In tIme...
This is Iike making a visit to the earIy stages of the IndustriaI RevoIution.
..seeIng what gave pleasure-seekIng VIctorIans the thrIll of theIr lIves...
(woman) Being 30 to 70 feet above the sea crashing beIow you.
A big change from city Iife.
..and takIng to the tracks In the latest hIgh-tech traIn sImulator.
(gasps) Oh!
Oh, dear! I think we're aII dead!