Ardee railway station was a railway station that served the town of Ardee in County Louth, Ireland. It was the terminus of a short branch line that diverged from the Belfast–Dublin mainline at Dromin Junction.
History
The station was opened on 1 August 1896 by the Great Northern Railway of Ireland (GNRI). It was built as the terminus of a 4.5-mile (approximately 7 km) branch line from Dromin Junction. The station building was designed in yellow brick by the GNRI's chief engineer, William Hemmingway Mills, with the engineer in charge of the branch being Joshua H. Hargrave (1860–1924).
The station had a single platform and a single track. Facilities included a station building, a two-storey red brick station master's house, and a locomotive shed.
Closure
Passenger services to Ardee were withdrawn on 3 June 1934, after only 38 years of operation. However, goods traffic continued to serve the local fertiliser factory and sugar beet industry for several more decades. The last scheduled service was a special excursion train in October 1975, and goods services officially ended on 3 November 1975. The line was not formally abandoned until 1987, after which the rails were lifted.
Present Day
The former station building, the station master's house, and the locomotive shed (all built around 1880) are listed as protected structures. The station building is currently used as a commercial premises by Mid-Louth Garage, a business that has operated on the site since 1974. The trackbed has been converted into a pedestrian walkway, developed by the local Tidy Towns committee with funding from Louth County Council in 2007, with further upgrades in 2014.
