Garlieston Harbour

Location type

Sidings

Name and dates

Garlieston Harbour

Opened on the Wigtownshire Railway.

Description

The steamer pier at Garlieston was served by a siding, accessed by a turnplate, at the base of the pier. A further siding ran from the turnplate alongside a quay beside Garlieston Mill.

Passengers for the steamers walked from the nearby Garliestown [2nd] station.

Steamers operated to the Isle of Man. These were suspended for the Great War and resumed between 1921 and 1935.

The branch to Garlieston harbour remained open until 1965. Some rails remained embedded in the ground at Garlieston Mill until the 1990s but are now gone.

Local

Garlieston Bay, north of the pier, was busy in the Second World War between 1941 and 1944 with testing and practice assembly of the sections of the 'Mulberry' harbours which were assembled in Normandy following the D-Day landings in 1944. These floating harbours were assembled from nothing on site using components manufactured all over Great Britain and towed across the channel after the beaches had been taken. Some 'Beetle' pontoons, which supported the pier roadways, remain in the north of the bay.

Tags

Pier Second World War
06/12/2021

Chronology Dates

  /  /1877Wigtownshire Railway
Authorisation to build railway to Garlieston Harbour.

Books


A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Scotland - The Lowlands and the Borders v. 6 (Regional railway history series)

Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Railways (Library of Railway History)
Rails to Portpatrick (Local History Series)
The Port Road: Dumfries to Stranraer, Portpatrick, Kirkcudbright and Whithorn