Attadale

Location type

Station

Names and dates

Attadale (1875-1878)
Attadale Platform (1878-1938)
Attadale Halt (1938-1980)
Attadale (1980-)

Station code: ATT National Rail ScotRail
Where: Highland, Scotland
Opened on the Dingwall and Skye Railway.
Open on the Kyle Line.

Description

This is a very small station with a single platform. The original small timber building has been replaced with a concrete equivalent. The platform is on the south side of the line. From the platform there is rather a fine view of Loch Carron and the beach. There is no car park but there is space for a car or two to park in a layby by the station.

The station opened around 1875 as a private halt for Attadale House, once the home of the Mathesons of Jardine Matheson fame. It became a public station in 1878.

Historically there was a siding at the east end of the platform, served from the east and with a short headshunt. There was a signal box here, at the east end of the waiting room, from 1893, removed at some point. The siding was closed to goods in 1966 but not removed until 1979. The platform is on the south side of the line.

Attadale was proposed as a possible terminus of the line with a pier and large station with waiting and refreshment rooms. Fortunately this unsuitable location for a pier was not used (it would have needed considerable dredging or a very long pier) and the line was extended west to Stromeferry.

Until the building of the Stromeferry Bypass this was the end of the dirt road from Carron, with only the railway continuing on to the south west. The Avalanche Shelter to the south west dates from the extension of the road and its alterations to the established route of the railway.

(Dates of change of name from Attadale to Attadale Platform, to Attadale Halt, to Attadale uncertain.)

Local

Attadale Estate

Tags

Station

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
09/05/2023

Facilities

Gaelic name: Atadal




Chronology Dates

02/05/1868Dingwall and Skye Railway
Deviation authorised; Kyle of Lochalsh to Attadale not to be built. Attadale to have a terminus and pier. Engineer; Joseph Mitchell & Company. Contractors; J & A Granger (Dingwall to Achanalt), A and K Macdonald (Achanalt to Attadale) and Donald McGregor & Company (Attadale Pier).
  /  /1869Dingwall and Skye Railway
Terminus plans altered from Attadale to Strome Ferry around this time.
  /  /1873Dingwall and Skye Railway
Attadale Platform opened
01/03/1878Dingwall and Skye Railway
Siding opened at Attadale.
15/08/1966Dingwall and Skye Railway
Attadale closed to goods.
  /  /1979Dingwall and Skye Railway
Ground frame and siding removed at Attadale.

News items

14/09/2020Highlands rail line closed following landslip [Press and Journal]
24/07/2020Attadale flower power to blossom after railway station plan gets on track [Northern Times]

Books


Highland Railway: People and Places - From the Inverness and Nairn Railway to Scotrail

History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands: Skye Railway v. 5

Insider Rail Guide: Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh (The Insider Rail Guide)

OS Explorer Map (428) Kyle of Lochalsh, Plockton and Applecross (OS Explorer Active Map)

Rails to Kyle of Lochalsh: Story of the Dingwall and Skye Railway Including the Strathpeffer Branch (Oakwood Library of Railway History)

The Dingwall & Skye Railway: A Pictorial Record of the Line to Kyle of Lochalsh

The Highland Railway

The Highland Railway : The History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands - Vol 2

The Kyle Line: An Illustrated History and Guide

The Kyle of Lochalsh and Far North Lines

The Kyle of Lochalsh Line: Great Railway Journeys Through Time