Donaghmore Station 39 Castlecaulfield Road Donaghmore Dungannon Co Tyrone BT70 3HF

Donaghmore Station

This is a two-storey, two-bay former station house opened by the Portadown, Dungannon and Omagh Railway Company in 1861. The building is now unoccupied and derelict. It has a shallow hipped natural slate roof with two brick chimneys (one towards the west end, one on the east gable), oversailing eaves with exposed rafter tails, and vestiges of ogee cast-iron gutters. The walls are of rendered rubble sandstone, embellished with stepped, vee-jointed and margined rusticated sandstone quoins to exposed corners. All openings are trimmed with brick (also rendered over), and all windows are 2-over-2 timber sliding sashes with dressed sandstone cills.

The building is aligned east-west. Its north elevation is four openings wide, with a single-storey entrance porch on the third opening from the left. The porch roof is pitched but otherwise detailed as the main block. It has a double-leaf 4-panel door with rectangular overlight and remnants of an electric light over, all in a moulded stucco surround. Segmental-headed windows are on each cheek (that at right is missing and sheeted over). A window stands to the right of the porch and two to the left, all with flat heads; the left window also has vertical metal security bars. Four window openings occupy the first floor, all in line with those below.

The east gable is abutted by a single-storey building; the exposed wall above is devoid of openings. The south elevation (facing the platform) has a segmental-headed doorway at centre with moulded stucco surround and vestiges of electric light over; now sheeted over with corrugated metal. A window lies to its left, and two to the right (both sheeted over), all with flat heads. Between the latter is a small round-headed opening, probably for a stove flue and possibly a later insertion. Four windows occupy the first floor, detailed as the north elevation. Between the two floors is the ghost of the canopy which once ran the length of the building and extended out over the platform. The west gable is blank. At its right-hand end a rubble stone wall with brick-trimmed opening extends across the end of the platform and returns parallel with the track up to the base of the approach to the bridge over the line. There was also a flight of steps down from the road, of which no obvious traces are now evident.

Originally there was an enclosed yard between the station building and goods shed, along the inside north side of which stood a single-storey outbuilding and at the south-east corner a toilet. The yard's north and south walls, both of rubble masonry, were incorporated into a later large single-storey shed with pitched, sky-lit natural slate roof. None of the original structures survives except the north and south walls. The yard's north elevation is now externally rendered with a doorway at each end; that at left has been infilled and a window inserted. On the south elevation is an infilled brick-trimmed opening (possibly originally a doorway into the former toilet within the yard) and a modern metal-framed window.

The goods shed lies at the east end of the north platform and has been extensively modified, notably with the addition of lean-to animal sheds along its north and east elevations. The sky-lit natural slate roof has been extended over this later lean-to addition (this pitch may have been entirely re-slated). A later concrete-brick chimney stands on its east gable. There are no rainwater goods. The walls are unrendered and of squared rubble masonry with plain quoins. The north elevation retains a wide doorway (but no doors) in what is now the party wall with the lean-to but is otherwise blank. Goods wagons entered the building through a segmental-arched opening at the south end of the east gable; only the dressed stone head is now obvious. A later doorway has been inserted into this gable at ground floor level, and also at first floor right; both have concrete heads and jambs. A brick-trimmed oculus occupies the gable's apex. The south elevation is devoid of openings except for a small hole which has been crudely punched through at a later date. A later roofless concrete-block lean-to spans the former track on this elevation. The west gable is also blank except for a later door giving access to the adjoining byre in the former yard.

Traces of both platforms survive immediately south of the buildings, mostly now buried or covered with overgrowth, evident in the form of vertical rubble masonry walls topped with oversailing concrete decks. The line continued west of the station under a segmental masonry stone bridge which still carries the road over the former line. The bridge survives but its arch is now largely infilled. All remnants of the actual railway track are long gone.

The complex lies on the east side of the main road, half a mile south of Donaghmore village. It now forms part of a farmyard accessed from north and south via lanes off the road and which has a large Dutch corrugated-metal barn at its east end. The original complex comprised the station building, associated outbuildings and yard, goods shed, platform, weighbridge and siding along the north side of the line, and a platform, waiting room and signal cabin on the south side. Only the station building, goods shed and platforms now survive.