Railway
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The Enniskillen and Bundoran Railway opened from Bundoran Junction on the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway near Kilskeery, Co. Tyrone to Pettigo on 13 June 1866. It was extended Bundoran, Co. Donegal in 1868 and intended to continue to Sligo but failed to do so. The Great Northern Railway ran the E&BR from 1876 and took it over in 1896.
Pettigo railway station was opened in 1866 but it incorporated a house that had been built in 1840. Trains from Pettigo went to Dublin Amiens Street, Enniskillen, Belleek, Ballyshannon and Bundoran. 30 men kept the railway in running repair. Water supplies for the steam locomotives was drawn from the River Termon.
The railway greatly aided the movement and export of agricultural produce such as sheep and cattle and the import and distribution of coal, building materials and imported food. Livestock were loaded onto the train from the nearby Pettigo Market Yard.
The railway also carried visitors to the developing seaside resort of Bundoran whose first hotel, the Hamilton Hotel, was built by Pettigo man, Hazlett Hamilton, who was a major property owner in Pettigo. Messrs. Brassey and Field completed the railway after the previous contractor went bankrupt. The return fare from Pettigo to Bundoran in 1866 was 3rd class 1 shilling, 2nd class 1s and 6 pence and 1st class 2 shillings (10 new pence). The railway also enhanced access to the Lough Derg pilgrimage for people from all over Ireland.
Both the partition of Ireland in 1922 and increasing road transport weakened the railway. The Government of Northern Ireland made the GNR close nearly all of its cross-border lines, including the Bundoran branch, on 1 October 1957.
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