In Ireland we don’t have tall mountains in comparison to those found in the rest of the world, our tallest peak is Carrauntoohil, Co Kerry with a height of 1038 m and so we have no demand for mountain cable cars.
However, we have been told there were at least four cable car systems in use in Ireland from the 1950s up until 2022, used for moving everything from cement to people to sheep.
Croatian inventor Fausto Veranzio (c. 1551 – 1617) is credited with the first concept of an ‘ariel lift’, what we now regard as the cable car, when writing in his ‘Machinae Novae’ in 1615 where he listed 56 different machines and technical concepts including aerial lifts.
In Gdańsk, Poland in 1644, Dutch inventor Adam Wiebe constructed the first operational aerial car built on multiple pylons operating in continuous motion in a loop and using a wire instead of rope. This two-hundred meter long system was powered by horses and had seven wooden pylons and one hundred and twenty cars suspended on the cable. The system was used to transport soil over the river Vistula for the purpose of building defences and was believed to be the biggest built until the end of the 19th century.
It wasn’t for another two hundred and forty-nine years that a cable car was built at Gibraltar in 1893 initially for transporting military personnel and then goods and passengers. The first cable car in Switzerland was built in 1908 in Grindelwald.
In 1937 what is believed to be the first cable car in Ireland was located at the Irish Cement factory at Newtownstalaban, Co Louth. The ariel ropeway was built for transporting crushed limestone and shale 2.5 miles (4 kms) to the cement factory alongside the river Boyne.
The ariel ropeway manufactured by F.L. Smidth & Co, London was capable of moving 150 tons (136 mt) of raw materials per hour. The ropeway had 140 buckets, each carrying 25cwt. (1270 kgs) and the entire system was driven by a 75 hp diesel motor at the factory end.
The second cable car in Ireland and first for transporting passengers was a more glamorous means of conveyance when in 1950 Eamonn Quinn, the father of Senator Fergal Quinn, purchased the Eagle’s Nest Restaurant and Ballroom on top of Bray Head 241 m (791 ft) in northern County Wicklow.
The Eagle’s Nest had been built by Johnny McGuirk in 1932 and there was a major problem with access to the venue which was 150 m above sea level: the incline from Bray town was too steep to walk comfortably. The main method of bringing up customers had been the Bray Head Express, a horse-drawn cart, which had cost six pence per person or you could climb up forty-seven steep steps.
After being inspired by Swiss ski lifts, Eamonn had a novel idea: he decided to build the first passenger cable car in Ireland, a ‘chair lift’ that would transport visitors up to the restaurant. The chairlift on the northern slopes of Bray Head consisted of steel cables stretched across seven pylons painted in yellow, with the passengers seated in double-chairs.
Opening in April 1952 the chairlift had a capacity to carry 300 passengers in each direction per hour and the cost was one shilling and sixpence to ascend and a shilling to descend to the terminus at Raheen Park. Despite having to ascend the chairlift in their finest attire, the evening dances at the Eagle’s Nest remained popular. At the time, there was no role-model in Ireland for this type of passenger conveyance, making it the first of its kind. The cable car ran successfully for two decades, from 1952 to 1976.
During the late 1960s, there were proposals that came to naught to construct a similar cable car in the vicinity of Devil’s Punch Bowl close to Killarney, Co Kerry.
The story of our third cable car takes us to the south-west and one of the approximate eighty islands off the coast of Ireland. Crow Island is located at the very western tip of the Beara Peninsula and adjacent to the famous Dursey Island cable car, but more of that later.
In the mid-1960s Tadhg Roger O’Sullivan from Scrivogue, County Cork wanted to expand the grazing for his sheep onto the five acres of Crow Island, however, he reasoned that having to row several miles out from the Beara Peninsula usually from November to February to land his sheep was dangerous even on a calm day and so the resourceful Tadhg came up with a better idea.
With the help of his brother-in-law and neighbours Tadhg was able to drill holes in the cliffs at Crow Head and stretch them across the 65-yard (59.4m) chasm and onto Crow Island. After laying two 5/8 inch (15 mm) steel cables across the distance and securing them at both ends, they attached a 4.5ft (137 cm) by 3ft (91 cm) cage with a wheel built into the cables to prevent it from toppling over.
The first person to ride the O’Sullivan cable car was a local man named Noel O’Sullivan, who was only around 14 years old at the time. He recalls, “I remember going in with a couple of sheep and pulling myself along.” And when asked was he afraid dangling 70 metres (229 ft) above the sea, “Not a bit of it, young and brave.”
In 2014, the Irish Coastguard and Kerry Mountain Rescue collaborated to recreate the original O’Sullivan cable car and successfully showcased the accomplishment of this cable car innovator.
And now we come to the fourth and perhaps our most famous cable car on Dursey Island which is among the few inhabited islands off the southwest coast of Ireland. Dursey is located at the far western end of the Beara Peninsula in County Cork adjacent to Crow Island and measuring 4 miles (6.5 km) in length and 1 mile (1.5 km) in width.
The mainland and Dursey Island are separated by a slim expanse of water known as Dursey Sound. This section of sea is characterised by a very strong tidal current, and in the midst of the sound, there lies a reef of rocks that is only submerged during high tides.
While it is a beautiful place the Atlantic Ocean can produce extremely treacherous seas stopping small boats from making the crossing as was the case in 1948 when a breeches buoy had to be shot over to the island to allow the islanders vote in the general election.
It is said that the local priest Reverend Keane was inspired by Tadhg O’Sullivan’s cable car and that he led a campaign for almost a decade for a cable car connection to Dursey Island.
The campaign was successful and in December 1969 the then-Taoiseach Jack Lynch accompanied by Máirín his wife, opened the Dursey Island cable car built by Swiss company Van Roll and providing a 10-minute link to the mainland.
During its operation it was the only cable car in Europe that traversed open seawater, with views over Crow Island and approximately 22,000 tourists made the journey each year as they stopped off at Dursey Island as one of the 15 designated ‘Signature Discovery Points’ located along the Wild Atlantic Way.
On April 1st 2022 Cork County Council closed the Dursey Island cable car for a major maintenance programme. While a date for reopening has yet to be confirmed, starting in May 2022 a two-hour per day ferry service for islanders only will operate in its place.
In the 1990s, there was considerable discussion regarding a cable car network that would connect Inisbiggle and Achill island in Co Mayo, yet these plans never materialised.
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Information sources:
Bray – Did You Know? – Brian & Stephen Lennon
British Pathé
Cement Act, 1933
Cork County Council
CR’s Video Vaults
Durseyisland.ie
GondolaProject.com
Greystones Guide
Independent.ie – Fiach Kelly
Irish Cement Ltd., Éanna Nolan, Technical Advisory Engineer
Irish Times – Hugh Oram
Mapcarta.com
Maps.ie
Penelope Durrell
S.I. No. 89/1937 The Cement Act (Transport Works) (Aerial Ropeway) Order, 1937
Station to Station
The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit
The Irish Examiner – Dan McCarthy
The Southern Star – Jackie Keogh
Wikipedia
Wild Place Pictures
WildAtlanticWay.com
Photographs:
ArnoutVos
balooz.com – Richie Hodges
Declan Surpless
Dieglop
Don Conlon
Hywel Williams
Ian Taylor
John Hines
K. Jähne
Killkenny
Luke McGuinness
Michael Pabst
Mkfinney.com
Nils E.
Shay Fennelly
If you have an idea for a story, email Kevin Reid [email protected]
