industrialheritageireland.info

The coming of railways to Ireland (and elsewhere globally) was a game changing event, both economically and socially, as the opportunities that the railway brought for economic expansion and social diversification were enormous.

A throwaway line in this property puff piece gives a hint of how the coming of a railway to a local area had an effect at the macro level.

The property in question is a former gate lodge of Rokeby Hall, Grangebellew, Co. Louth. The article notes:

Marlay was the gate lodge to Rokeby Hall, designed by Francis Johnson. It was single storey initially, but they added a floor when the railway came through and the road was raised.

Irish independent 31 May 2024

This got me thinking – why would the arrival of the railway lead to the road being raised?

I checked the usual map sources and this property is immediately west of the railway line between Drogheda and Dundalk with an overbridge carrying the former access road to Rokeby Hall over the railway. This is the road raising referred to.

I would assume that with the road raised, the original single storey property was below the new road level and the gatekeeper would not have a line of sight to the road to control access to the estate. Adding a second storey in this case would make sense.

The only question I have remaining is whether or not Sir John Stephen Robinson, owner of the estate at the time, received additional compensation from the Dublin & Belfast Junction Railway for the cost of extending the gate lodge.

I found this video on YouTube which is a concise history of the tramways/railway serving the Guinness Brewery in Dublin.