BLACKROCK DART STATION

Blackrock has a station on the Dublin Area Rapid Transit line, or DART. It is a 15 minute ride to city centre from Blackrock Station. Dublin Bus also serves the area with multiple bus routes. This runs on the track that was built in 1834 as the Dublin-Kingstown railway. That railway revived Blackrock which had been in decline.
That railway line had a dramatic effect of the coastline of Blackrock. The Rock Road was once directly beside the sea, and the railway line was built about 50 meters from the coast, giving the impression that the trains were running on water. However, the intervening area soon became marshland, and the area between Williamstown and Blackrock became Blackrock Park. Lord Cloncurry of Maretimo and Sir Harcourt Lees of Blackrock House refused to allow the Railway company to build the line through their lands. They were persuaded with generous compensation as well as a private harbour (Vances Harbour) and numerous buildings built on their lands for them. These included the Cloncurry Towers bridge, a granite bridge over the railway tunnel, a gothic summer-house in the grounds of Blackrock House, and a doric bathing-temple in the grounds of Maretimo. Unfortunately in April 2004, the Doric Temple was badly vandalised and lost its portico. The Cloncurry Towers have been in disrepair for some years now, their windows are boarded up, the deck covered in corrugated iron, their chimneys (disguised as urns) removed and their far entrance demolished.