Sutherland Railway

Introduction

This line is open. Passenger services are provided by ScotRail from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. The line is supported and promoted by the Friends of the Far North Line .






Dates

29/06/1865Sutherland Railway
Sutherland Railway receives act to build a line from Bonar Bridge to Brora.
13/04/1868Sutherland Railway
Bonar Bridge (Inverness and Ross-shire Railway) to Golspie opened with stations at: Invershin, Lairg, Rogart, The Mound and Golspie.
  /  /1871Sutherland Railway
Culrain opened.
19/06/1871Duke of Sutherland's Railway
Golspie (Sutherland Railway) to Dunrobin opened, Dunrobin becomes private station for the Duke of Sutherland. West Helmsdale to Helmsdale opened. Highland Railway works line.
  /  /1884Sutherland RailwayHighland Railway
Sutherland Railway absorbed by Highland Railway.
02/06/1902Dornoch Light Railway
Dornoch Light Railway opened from The Mound (Sutherland Railway) to Dornoch. Andrew Carnegie spoke at the opening (he owned Skibo Castle at Skilbo near Dornoch).
  /  /1912Sutherland Railway
Oykel Viaduct strengthened for 'Castle' locomotives during 1912/1913.
13/06/1960Sutherland Railway
Rogart and The Mound closed.
06/03/1961Sutherland Railway
Rogart re-opened.
12/06/1961Sutherland Railway
Rogart re-named Rogart Halt.
17/05/1982Sutherland Railway
Rogart Halt renamed Rogart.
04/03/1998Sutherland Railway
Station building at Golspie sold at auction in Glasgow (as was a former railway cottage at Dalwhinnie).
11/12/2001Sutherland Railway
First oil train runs to the re-instated facility at Lairg for the first time in 10 years. The service is operated by English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS).
  /10/2006Inverness and Ross-shire Railway Dingwall and Skye Railway Sutherland Railway Duke of Sutherland's Railway Sutherland and Caithness Railway
Landslips and flood damage close the Far North and Kyle lines between Dingwall and Garve, at Helmsdale, at Ardgay and Watten .

Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

This is a two platform station with a passing loop on the Far North Line. The northbound platform retains its two storey station building with a platform awning supported by pillars, now a house, and a goods yard exists to the south, west side of the line, currently in permanent way maintenance use. The station had refreshment rooms to the north of the station building. Platforms are linked by ...

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See also
Inverness and Ross-shire Railway
It is 15.34 on 9 September 2021 and 158704 is in Platform 1 at Ardgay with the 15.30 to Inverness, the 12.54 from Wick. In Platform 2 is 158716 on the ...
Michael Green 09/09/2021
Ardgay's main station building, on the northbound platform, seen in 2004. ...
Ewan Crawford 22/07/2004
The main station building at Ardgay in August 2007. ...
John Furnevel 30/08/2007
158725 calls at Ardgay in April 2007. ...
John Gray 12/04/2007
4 of 10 images. more


This is a four arch single track stone bridge over the River Carron north of Ardgay station. Two main arches cross the river with flood water arches at the north end.
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This is a single platform station with a small shelter south of the Oykel Viaduct. It is in an area of scattered houses, farmland and low population. Culrain Mains is to the immediate west. The Kyle of Sutherland, and the lower River Oykel, are to the east.
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View north from Culrain station in 1989, with the abandoned southbound platform on the right. The main station building was on the left and goods yard ...
Ewan Crawford //1989
The lonely outpost of Culrain on the Far North line in September 2001. A quarter of a mile off to the right is the Oykel Viaduct spanning the Kyle of ...
John Furnevel 14/09/2001
All quiet at Culrain in 1976. ...
Ian Dinmore //1976
3 of 3 images.


The Oykel Viaduct is directly to the south of Invershin station and north of Culrain station. It is a single track 280 foot truss viaduct with two masonry arches to the south and three to the north, 80 ft over the watercourse. Also known as the Shin Railway Viaduct. (The confluence of the Oykel and the Shin is to the north, the viaduct passes over the Kyle of Sutherland.) The viaduct was ...

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37414 crosses the Shin Viaduct with a northbound train. Taken on 31 March 1989 when the Far North Line was isolated by the Ness Viaduct collapse. ...
Bill Roberton 31/03/1989
Southbound over the Oykel Viaduct on the approach to Culrain from Invershin. ...
Ewan Crawford //
37421 and 37612 top and tail a northbound Network Rail test train over the Oykel
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John Gray 05/08/2018
Looking west at the Oykel viaduct. ...
Ewan Crawford //
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This is a single platform station, immediately to the north of the Oykel Viaduct with a short timber portion at the south end where the line rises on an embankment on approach to the viaduct. The station building is in a state of ruin. Culrain station is to the south over the Oykel Viaduct. The station has no car park.
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The surviving shell of the former station building at Invershin, seen from the west on 30 August 2007. The current entrance to the station is on the ...
John Furnevel 30/08/2007
The fenced off wooden platform extension at the south end of Invershin station, looking out onto the Oykel Viaduct in September 2001. Below left is ...
John Furnevel 14/09/2001
One of the original lamp brackets still adorns the derelict station building at Invershin in July 2008. ...
John Gray 21/07/2008
Somewhere, over the rainbow... Invershin, January 1989. Carbisdale Castle stands in the left background. ...
Ian Dinmore /01/1989
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A siding is reached by reversing from a spur off the southbound line of the loop at Lairg, south of the station. These oil sidings have seen irregular use with the flow from Grangemouth New Oil Terminal starting and ceasing several times. At present, 2018, the sidings are not used, oil travels by road.
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After reversing its train clear of the main line into Lairg Oil Depot an EWS class 66 awaits a change of points within the yard before positioning the ...
John Furnevel 31/08/2007
Lost Railfreight. Lairg Oil Depot, south of Lairg station, seen from a passing southbound train in 1989. Unfortunately the bulk traffic has ...
Ewan Crawford 04/01/1989
2 of 2 images.


This is a two platform station on the Far North Line. Station buildings remain standing and there is an oil depot siding south of the station (Lairg Oil Depot).
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The Up waiting shelter at Lairg in 1989.
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Bill Roberton //1989
Lairg goods shed in 1989, with the still in use coal yard. The shed no longer stands.
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Bill Roberton //1989
A ScotRail service for Inverness pulls away from the staggered southbound platform at Lairg on a cold September morning in 2001. ...
John Furnevel 06/09/2001
Lairg station building, now a private residence, seen from 158717 calling at the shortened southbound platform with the ex-16.00 service from Wick via ...
David Bosher 17/06/2019
4 of 37 images. more


This quarry was just north of Lairg station, to the north of the level crossing at the north end of that station. The quarry was rail served, via a headshunt on the east side of the line which was approached from the north. The siding may date from around 1947.
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This summit is 484 ft above sea level.
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Near Lairg Summit a Safeway train heads south. ...
Ewan Crawford //
1 of 1 images.


This was a loop opened in 1909 to break the Lairg - Rogart single track section of the Far North Line.
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West, but untimately southbound, train near the former Acheilidh Crossing. ...
Ewan Crawford //
Looking east from the level crossing at the former Acheilidh Crossing. ...
Ewan Crawford //
Looking northwest over Strathfleet on an overcast 28 August 2007. The train is the 10.39 ScotRail service from Inverness, which has just crossed the ...
John Furnevel 28/08/2007
The mid afternoon southbound ScotRail service on the far north line, having recently left Rogart heading for Lairg in the summer of 2007. [Ref query ...
John Furnevel 30/08/2007
4 of 4 images.


This signal box, 3/4 of a mile north west of Rogart, opened in 1890.
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A ScotRail 4-car 158 combination on the Far North Line heading east along Strathfleet on the approach to Rogart on 18 August 2007. ...
John Furnevel 18/08/2007
1 of 1 images.


This is a two platform station with a loop on the Far North Line. A stone built cottage style station building remains standing on the northbound platform. The platforms were extended at their western ends in timber.
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158707, with the first train of the day from Wick via Thurso to Inverness, departing from the request stop at Rogart, early on the morning of Monday, ...
David Bosher 17/06/2019
Salvaged nameboard from Allanfearn station on the line between Inverness and Nairn, opened in 1855 and closed in 1965, on display at Rogart station on ...
David Bosher 16/06/2019
A morning train from Inverness arriving at Rogart on 31 August 2007. First ScotRail 158740 is on its way to Wick and Thurso. ...
John Furnevel 31/08/2007
The first train of the day from Inverness to Wick via Thurso, in the hands of 158720, arriving at Rogart station, dead on time at 09.06 on 17th June ...
David Bosher 17/06/2019
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This was a two platform junction station - one platform on the main Far North Line (with a loop on its north side) opened in 1868 and a branch platform of 1902 (also with a loop, on its south side), located just to the south, on the closed Dornoch branch.
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See also
Dornoch Light Railway
A 158 on a Wick to Inverness service skirts Loch Fleet and heads towards the site of The Mound station, marked by the modern bridge that carries the ...
Mark Bartlett 20/07/2016
Substantial remains of the former The Mound station, one-time junction for the branch to Dornoch, being passed by 158720 from Inverness to Wick via ...
David Bosher 17/06/2019
Road approach to the disused station at The Mound (closed 1960) from the south in the summer of 2007. Trains on the Far North line still run past ...
John Furnevel 31/08/2007
The Mound looking east from a largely dismantled road bridge. The Dornoch platform was to the right. ...
Ewan Crawford //1996
4 of 25 images. more


This is a single platform station which retains its station building, 'B' listed, which is now a house after spending several years derelict and at risk. The building opened with the station, the architect was William Fowler. The building has a unique design, presumably with the Duke of Sutherland's patronage in mind.
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See also
Duke of Sutherland^s Railway
Approaching the station at Golspie, Sutherland, in August 2007. ...
John Furnevel 27/08/2007
Golspie goods shed still in use by the local coal merchant.16/10/06 ...
John Gray 16/10/2006
The station building at Golspie, seen from the forecourt on 27 August 2007. The date on the stone is 1868. The road bridge on the right carries the A9 ...
John Furnevel 27/08/2007
Golspie old station now a private house. 16/10/06 ...
John Gray 16/10/2006
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