This short-lived industrial narrow-gauge railway was built in the early 1870s in County Antrim to connect the ironstone mines at Glenariff to a private pier just over four miles away on the coast. Although the amount of ore extracted never reached the levels expected by the promoters, its ultimate failure was due to the depression in the iron trade during the 1870s, the especially dreadful weather in that decade - which made ships reluctant to use the rather exposed pier, and the lack of skilled local workers able and willing to work in the mines.

The line used two Stephenson-built 2-4-0T locos and, briefly, a homemade shunter based around the vertical boiler originally provided to power the stone crusher used to break up the local rock for ballast. Freight wagons comprised basic 4-wheeled wagons provided by Ashburys. These were shunted at the quayside using horses and the ore was shovelled into waiting ships down wooden chutes.

Operations continued until about 1884 when the growing losses prompted the company to default on its substantial ground rent. Its landlord, the earl of Antrim, eventually issued a writ and the resulting proceedings led to the winding up of the company and the auction of its assets. The two locos and rolling stock were bought by MacRae and McFarland for their Lough Swilly railway.

The brief account in Patterson's Ballymena Lines and in the recently republished version, The Mid-Antrim Narrow Gauge, contain a number of misconceptions which it is intended to address in a new history of this little line.