Helen's Bay Station

In 1852, when Lord Dufferin devised his avenue from Clandeboye House to Grey Point, there was no thought of a railway along the coast from Holywood to Bangor. In fact, Lord Dufferin was then supporting the idea of a line from Belfast, via Newtownards to Donaghadee as part of his interest in promoting the Donaghadee to Portpatrick steam packet. His landscape architect, James Frazer, had even mapped out the route of the proposed railway line, complete with a road from Clandeboye to a station at Conlig.

The extension of the Belfast to Holywood line onwards to Bangor was first publicly mooted in 1858.[1] Lord Dufferin was not very enthusiastic about the project, as the line would cross his land and new avenue, obscuring his view of the Sea Park and Belfast Lough beyond.

Despite this, work on the line started in 1862 and, at a grand dinner commemorating the laying of the foundation stone of the Crawfordsburn viaduct, Lord Dufferin admitted that the support supplied by some of the other landowners along the line had been “more thorough and more enthusiastic” than his own.[2]

However, there was perhaps a silver lining. Having been foiled by the Coastguards in his attempt to build a grand Scottish baronial style house on the coast, and running short of funds due to his excessive expenditure on road building and other estate improvements, here was a chance to finally build his Walter Scott inspired folly, at someone else’s expense. He duly commissioned Benjamin Ferrey to design this wonderful station, complete with crow step gables, a tower, and down below the huge coat of arms on the face of the railway bridge, opening out into the carriage turning circle and the now bricked up door that led up steps to his private waiting room.

There were nervous moments for Ferrey as the middleman in the enterprise, evidenced by his letter to Lord Dufferin’s secretary in January 1864 that he was worried about payment from the railway company.[3] However, work progressed, and the roof was finally slated in February 1865. But then Dufferin discovered that the architect and engineer for the project, Charles Lanyon intended to name it Crawfordsburn Station. This idea was nipped in the bud with a letter from his land agent to Lanyon asking for it to be changed to Clandeboye Station. [4]

By 1894 the route was so busy that the railway company was planning to expand the line from one to two tracks. This entailed a new platform, complete with an underpass.[5] Dufferin’s land agent asked if an opening could be made onto the avenue at the same time, maybe to provide access for passengers along the avenue to the new village, after which it was renamed Helen’s Bay Station in 1895. And so it endures: a symbol of Lord Dufferin’s romantic vision and a genuine jewel of the Victorian period.

[1] The Downpatrick Recorder 30 October 1858

[2] Masefield. Robin, 'Be Careful, Don't Rush' (Bayburn Historical Society, 2015), 44.

[3] PRONI D1071/A/K/3/B/2/1 13 January 1864

[4] PRONI D1071/A/K/3/B/15/1 24 February 1865

[5] PRONI D1071/A/K/1/C/18/1 17 April 1894