Howth Railway Station, Howth Road, Howth, Co. Dublin

The central bay projects forward, marking the entrance, and above it all runs a hipped slate roof finished with terracotta ridge tiles, the sort of decorative flourish that turns a functional building into something closer to a statement. Cast iron canopy work still shelters part of the platform, its ironwork decorated rather than plain, a reminder that Victorian railway companies often treated even modest branch stations as opportunities for display.

The building dates from around 1855, built as the railway reached out to Howth on its rocky headland north of Dublin. Four yellow brick chimneys rise from the roofline, and the walls, rendered and painted, are finished with plaster quoins, the cornerstone-like blocks that architects used to give a building visual weight at its edges even when no real structural stonework was involved. The windows keep their plastered surrounds and granite sills, and some retain timber casements with lead diamond detailing, a patterning of small diamond-shaped panes held in lead that was common in the period's more considered architectural jobs rather than purely utilitarian ones. Doors have been replaced over the years, as is common with buildings still in daily use, but the overall form remains legible as a two-storey station house with its original proportions intact.

Today the ground floor operates as a public house, an adaptive reuse that keeps the building active rather than leaving it to function purely as a transport artefact. The railway itself still runs through Howth, so the exterior, including the canopy and the entrance bay, can be seen by anyone passing through on the DART line north from Dublin. Looking up at the chimneys and the ridge tiles rewards a slower glance than most commuters give a station on their way to the harbour or the cliff walks beyond.