The Gobbins is a cliff-face running from Whitehead to Portmuck Harbour along the eastern coast of Islandmagee, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on the Causeway Coastal Route.

[5] James Kerr lost his life by falling over the Gobbins cliffs on 11 Jun 1892 aged 14 years when collecting seagull eggs and he is interred in the nearby Ballypriormore Cemetery.

[8] The Gobbins drew worldwide acclaim, with newspapers declaring that 'the varied beauty of this cliff path baffles all description'.

[11] However, the railway company got into financial difficulties during the 1930s;[12] upkeep slipped and the path was closed in the run-up to World War II.

[1] The Gobbins cliff path was the brainchild of a pioneering Irish railway engineer called Berkeley Deane Wise.

[23] This and other experiences helped give Wise the skills he needed to conceive his ultimate achievement – The Gobbins cliff path – just over 25 years later.

Cotton arranged 'excursion trains' for every occasion[24] and made 3rd class tickets available from all stations[24] – opening up the possibility of travel and day trips for thousands of ordinary people.

Berkeley Deane Wise took this tourism endeavour to the next level, creating innovative new paid-for attractions that would encourage visitors to use the railway company's services.

Within a year of starting at the 'Northern Counties', he had opened a series of paths and bridges at beautiful Glenariff Glen – later adding a tearoom and shelters with coloured glass to view the waterfalls there.

[25] Just south of The Gobbins, Wise helped transform the tiny hamlet of Whitehead into a premier holiday resort.

[34] An extension was duly opened in 1908, but disaster struck in the last week of May that year: a major landslip broke one of the bridges and blocked the path.

[14] The Gobbins became a must-see for tourists and locals alike – including many visitors from Britain who came via the steamer service to Larne and stayed there or in Whitehead.

An oval-shaped hole bored in the rock, it was manned by a railway company 'toll collector' from 10 am to 5 pm daily (including Sundays).

[42] Close to the entrance of the path two tearooms provided refreshments including strong tea, fried slices of ham, eggs, tomatoes, potato and soda bread, all of which were 'much appreciated' by visitors.

Reviewers described an incredible experience:"In many places the rocks rise to a height of two hundred feet, sometimes quite abruptly...every few steps a different view of cliff is disclosed.

[6] Following the Great Depression and the steady rise of competition from road transport, the railway company got into financial difficulties – by 1938 the Northern Counties Committee was losing £19,000 a year.

As a result, no upkeep was carried out, apart from painting the railings black to avoid them acting as a landmark for German air-raids heading into Belfast.

[16][17] However lack of finance and scepticism about tourist numbers in the face of the conflict in Northern Ireland frustrated these attempts.