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Irish Narrow Gauge - Dingle

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Dingle - T&DR

• osi 100m reference: Q448006, map DM070
• Dingle - in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of 1842
• track diagram: [DTDGR d-5-p22- ]
• photos: [DTDGR b-4-p55-?1900 b-4-p72-1907 b-5-p120-1953 b-5-p121-1953 b-5-p66-1939 b-5-p70-1953 b-5-p77-1938 b-5-p78-1938 b-5-p85-1931 b-5-p85-1938 b-7-p7-1899 ]
• crossing keepers cottage (home of driver Jack Cotter): [DTDGR b-6-p54-1951.08 ]
• engine shed: [INGV1: b-5-p50- b-5-p50-1907 ]
• station: [INGV1: b-5-p50-1907 ]
  [DTDGR b-5-p14-1953.04 b-5-p65-1938 b-6-p53-1950 b-6-p53-1951.08 b-6-p53-1953.06 ]
• train shed: [INGV1: b-7-p50-1924.05.30 ]
• turntable: [INGV1: b-7-p50-1934.07.14 ]
• water tower: [INGV1: b-5-p50- b-5-p50- ]
• yard: [DTDGR b-6-p54-1951.08 b-6-p54-1952.07 ]
• Cassell's 1899:

  Dingle, (formerly Dingle-i-Couch). parish, market town (Saturdays), and seaport on the north side of Dingle Bay, Corkaguiny barony, West county Kerry, Ireland, 31 miles SW of Tralee ; acreage of parish 9,097, of town 85. The town, which is the most westerly in the United Kingdom, is situated on a slope at the northern extremity of a fine harbour, almost cut off from Dingle Bay by a tongue of land, which shelters it from south-western gales, but at the same time renders it difficult of access. On the other three sides Dingle is enclosed by mountains. It is said to have been founded - at least, in part - by the Spaniards, who resorted much to the fisheries off the coast, and carried on a considerable trade with the natives ; many of the inhabitants have a decidedly Spanish cast of countenance, and some of the older houses bear a striking resemblance to those of a Spanish town. Dingle received a charter from James I., vestingthe government in a "sovereign, burgesses, and commonalty." Prior to the Union it was represented by two members in the Irish Parliament. The Protestant church (1807) stands on the site of an older one, which is said to have been founded by the Spaniards. Of the other buildings, the most conspicuous are the handsome Roman Catholic church and the workhouse. The ruins of the ancient castle founded by the Husseys, which afterwards belonged to the Knights of Kerry, are 8 miles SE of the town ; the monastery, a cell of Killagh Abbey, has disappeared. Dingle is a head-station of the coastguard and also of the Royal Irish Constabulary. The town has lost much of its former prosperity, and its linen manufacture no longer exists, but the fisheries are still important ; butter and fish are largely exported, and mackerel-curing is on the increase. The chief seat is Burnham, the residence of Loard Ventry, on the west side of the harbour. Dingle Bay, West county Kerry, runs in an east-north-easterly direction, the upper portion consisting of Castlemaine harbour, which is the most completely separated from the rest of the bay by a peninsula called the Inch. The bay is 18 miles wide at its entrance, between Bray and Dunmore Heads, and 2¼ miles long to Castlemaine harbour, where the width is 7 miles. Ventry and Dingle harbours are on the north, and Valentia harbour on the south side of the bay. The cliff scenery on either coast, with mountain ranges rising behind, is in many places very grand. Population (parish) : 3143. Population (market town) : 1764.