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Despite a new railway hotel and passenger station being opened at Northumberland Road, Poulton Le Sands (as Morecambe was then known) proved to be far from ideal as a practical port due to its dependency on the tide. In the 1860s, the Midland Railway Company entered an agreement with Furness Railways to transfer its Northern Ireland passenger service from Poulton Le Sands to Piel on the Cumbrian coast - served by the Furness Railway.
Despite the initial success of this partnership however, the Midland Railway Company decided to develop its own port at Heysham where deep-water access was more reliable.
In 1897, the Midland Railway Company purchased land for the construction of the new harbour, and their contractors, Price and Wills, began construction in the same year. By 1898, there were about 200 men employed and this figure soon reached approximately 2,000.
Workers were housed in two wooden 'villages', known as Klondyke and Dawson City, being named after the prominent areas of the North American gold rush which had started in 1896. The villages provided a range of facilities for the harbour workers, including a hotel, bakery, barber, clothing store, canteen and police station
Heysham Harbour was officially opened by the Midland Railway Company in 1904 with direct rail connection, and four new steamers (Antrim, Donegal, Londonderry and Manxman) were built to open services to Belfast and Douglas.
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