Notes: Alt-y-Graig was located on the 2½-mile long Prestatyn to Dyserth Branch. The line was opened in 1869 by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) to carry lead and haematite from mines in the upper Prestatyn Valley down to the Chester and Holyhead Main line at Prestatyn.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was a demand for a passenger service on the line, with a petition being sent to the LNWR in 1896. The LNWR eventually agreed to this, and a regular passenger service started on Monday 28 August 1905. On 1 January 1923 the line became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS). Alt-y-Graig opened on 1 February 1929. It was located on the north side of a road overbridge and consisted of a simple, short low-level platform on the east side of the line. A sloping footpath and steps led up from the road. One of the main sources of passenger traffic was tourists who travelled up to Alt-y-Graig to view the Cwm waterfalls and a ruined castle. Although in the early days the passenger service had been well patronised, by the time that Alt-y-Graig opened the railway had lost

The line reverted to being purely a freight route, and stone trains continued to pass through the site of Alt-y-Graig regularly until 7 September 1973.Even after 1973 trains occasionally passed through, but the traffic had ceased by 1980, and the track was lifted in that year. Attempts were made to reopen the line as a preserved railway, and, to this end, the local authority even bought the trackbed. Eventually the plans came to nothing, and the trackbed was developed into a footpath

Sources:

• From Chester to Holyhead The Branch Lines by Bill Rear
  
• Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology by Michael Quick (Railway & Canal Historical Society 2009)
• Clinker’s Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots by C R Clinker (Pub: Avon Anglia 1978)

Further reading: The Prestatyn and Dyserth branch line by Stephen P. Goodall (Oakwood Press 1986) ISBN-13: 978-0853613138.
Other web site: www.dyserth.com web site for a feature on the Dyserth branch with more photos.
Click here to see a 4 minute film of a DMU railtour to the Dyserth branch in 1968.

Route map drawn by Alan Young

To see other stations on the Dyserth branch line click on the station name:
Chapel Street, Woodland Park, St. Melyd Gold Links, Meliden & Dyserth