Cultra railway station is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

in the

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

of Ballycultra in

Holywood Holy Wood or Holywood may refer to: Places * Holywood, County Down, a town and townland in Northern Ireland ** Holywood, County Down (civil parish), a civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland ** Holywood railway station (Northern Ireland) ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland. It serves the

Cultra Cultra ( - ) is an affluent residential neighbourhood near Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is part of Greater Belfast. It is in the Ards and North Down Borough Council area. Cultra is home to the Royal North of Ireland Yacht ...

residential area and the

Ulster Folk and Transport Museum Both the Ulster Folk Museum and Ulster Transport Museum are situated in Cultra, Northern Ireland, about east of the city of Belfast. Now operating as two separate museums, the Folk Museum endeavours to illustrate the way of life and traditions ...

History

The Belfast, Holywood and Bangor Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament on 12 June 1861 and opened in May 1865. The BH&BR crossed the land of some wealthy landowners, whose terms included that Cultra station must be ''"of an ornamental character"'' and that ''"at least One Half of the Trains"'' must call there, or else the company would be penalised £10 per day. The BH&BR was originally single track and the only passing loop was at , so Cultra station would have had only one platform. However, the

Belfast and County Down Railway The Belfast and County Down Railway (BCDR) was an Irish gauge () railway in Ireland (later Northern Ireland) linking Belfast with County Down. It was built in the 19th century and absorbed into the Ulster Transport Authority in 1948. All but the ...

took over the BH&BR in 1884 and doubled the track between 1897 and 1902, from which time Cultra has had two platforms. In deference to Cultra's wealthy residents the footbridge between the platforms had a roof, the only bridge so equipped on the B&CDR network. Cultra station features in the documentary film ''

A Letter from Ulster ''A Letter from Ulster'' is a 1942 documentary by Ulster-born movie director Brian Desmond Hurst who, along with his lifelong friend Terence Young (scriptwriter) and fellow Ulsterman and Assistant Director William (Bill) MacQuitty, created this ...

'' (1942); the narrator incorrectly describes the station as

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

. Due to low passenger numbers, the

Ulster Transport Authority The Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) ran rail and bus transport in Northern Ireland that operated from 1948 until 1967. Formation and consolidation The UTA was formed by the , which merged the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board (NIRTB) ...

closed the station on 11 November 1957. However, subsequently the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum was established at Cultra.

Northern Ireland Railways NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways (NIR; and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways; UTR), is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose parent company is the Northern Ireland Tr ...

reopened the station in 1978, primarily to serve the museum.

Service

Mondays to Saturdays there is a half-hourly service westbound to Belfast Grand Central in one direction, and eastbound to Bangor in the other. More frequent trains run at peak times, and the service reduces to hourly in the evenings. Some peak-hour trains pass through Cultra station without stopping. On Sundays there is an hourly service in each direction.

References

Sources

External links

* {{UK railway stations Railway stations in County Down Railway stations in Northern Ireland opened in 1865 Railway stations in Northern Ireland closed in 1957 Railway stations in Northern Ireland opened in 1978 Reopened railway stations in Northern Ireland Railway stations opened by NI Railways Railway stations served by NI Railways