Beasdale No 118 Tunnel: Leaving a smoke trail round the edge of Loch nan Uahm, Black 5 No.44871 builds up some speed on 11 October as it approaches the first tunnel on the 1 in 48 gradient of Beasdale Bank with The Jacobite .
John Gray 11/10/2011

Beasdale

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Beasdale (1901-)

Station code: BSL National Rail ScotRail
Where: Highland, Scotland
Opened on the Mallaig Extension (West Highland Railway).
Open on the West Highland Line.

Description

This is a single platform station. The building adjoining the station was both a waiting room for Arisaig House and a railwayman's house, in a style typical of such buildings on the line. The building, which was derelict in the 1980s, has been restored. There is a timber waiting room on the platform.

There was a siding on the north side of the line to the immediate west, lifted in 1988.

The station was built for Arisaig House which is about a mile west and slightly closer to this station than Arisaig. (It is now Arisaig House Hotel .) The station was advertised from 1965 but did handle local traffic from the line opening.

To the east is Beasdale No 119 Tunnel. To the west is Borrodale Tunnel.

Even closer is Beasdale Bridge, a girder bridge over the A830, which is west of the station. It is a pinch point on that road, requiring traffic lights for the one lane road.

Local

Prince Charles Edward Stuart left Scotland from the shore of Loch nan Uamh in 1746 after the unsuccessful Jacobite uprising. The The Prince's Cairn was built in 1956 by the 1745 Association. The cairn is over a mile away to the east by road. See also Glenfinnan Monument.

Tags

Station

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map

Facilities

Gaelic name: Biasdale




Chronology Dates

01/04/1901Mallaig Extension (West Highland Railway)
Line opened from Banavie (Banavie Junction [2nd]), over the Caledonian Canal and on through Banavie, Corpach, Locheilside, Glenfinnan, Lochailort, Beasdale, Arisaig and Morar to Mallaig, extending the West Highland Railway to the western seaboard. There was no official opening ceremony.

News items

19/11/2023Two-bedroom home which formed iconic backdrop for the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter goes on sale for 235,000 [Daily Mail]
05/07/2023Beasdale Station Cottage, Beasdale, Nr Arisaig [Mcintyre & Company]
26/11/2021Deserted Scots railway station had no passengers at all in the last year [Daily Record]
09/04/2021Here are 12 beautiful views you can see from train journeys around Scotland [Scotsman]
03/05/2017Fire crews battle large wildfire in Lochaber [Press and Journal]

Books


A Mallaig Boyhood (Flashbacks)
All Stations to Mallaig!: West Highland Line Since Nationalisation
Captains and Commanders: Memoirs of a Scottish West Coast Fisherman

Chapels of the Rough Bounds

Highland Steam: A Scrapbook of Images from the 'Kyle, Mallaig and Highland Lines

History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands: West Highland Railway v. 1

History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands: West Highland Railway v. 1

Iron Road to the Isles: A Travellers and Tourist Guide to the West Highland Lines

Iron Roads to the Isles: A Travellers and Tourists Souvenir Guide to the West Highland Lines

Landranger (40) Mallaig & Glenfinnan, Loch Shiel (OS Landranger Map)

Mallaig Line: An Illustrated History and Guide

Old Mallaig, Morar and Arisaig

On West Highland Lines

Railway World Special: Fort William and Mallaig

Railway World Special: West Highland Lines

Rannan Rathad Iarainn nan Eilean =: The West Highland Line
Steam to Mallaig
The Mallaig Railway
The Mallaig Railway: The West Highland Extension 1897-1901 (RCAHMS Broadsheet)
The Story of the West Highland

The Story of the West Highland: The 1940s LNER Guide to the Line

The West Highland Mallaig Extension in B.R.Days

The West Highland Railway

The West Highland Railway (Railways of the Scottish Highlands)

The West Highland Railway 120 Years

Walks from the West Highland Railway (Cicerone Guide)

West Highland Extension: Great Railway Journeys Through Time

West Highland Railway
West Highland Railway (History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands v. 1): West Highland Railway v. 1