This is Dingwall station.
Hello August and greetings from Scotland.
I am in Scotland to continue my epic Request Stop adventure.
On the line today, up from Inverness,
through Dingwall, out to Kyle of Lochalsh
There are six requests stops on this line,
however I'm only gonna be able to tick off some of them.
Three, maybe four, we'll see how it goes,
as I will explain in a second.
So the views out the window are pretty amazing.
It was a toss up as to whether the Kyle of Lochalsh Line
or the Mallaig Line is the most scenic
up here in the Highlands.
But what I really remember is from "All the Stations 2017"
is as you get near Kyle of Lochalsh,
the loch obviously comes in from the sea
and the railway runs right by the sea,
and I want to get a shot of that because it looks amazing.
But the main problem we have is that this line
is only served by four trains a day,
and there's more than four request stops.
So here's a quick map showing you the problems
that I've got today.
Here's the line, and it gets just four trains a day,
travelling from Inverness
through to all 12 stops after Dingwall,
and the six of them, these six, are request stops.
And as far as I can work out,
there's no way, even with doubling back,
to be able to do all six in one day.
But let's see how I get on
as I make my first stop at Duncraig Station.
Can you give us a toot?
Yes, I will do. Excellent.
(horn toots)
It's just magnificent.
Look, look! (laughs)
Look how short the platform is.
And this is what I remember from "All the Stations"
about Duncraig.
The water, the tiny platform,
and just the magnificence that is this railway.
So I did actually have a little problem last night, YouTube,
and that I dropped my camera and my tripod
that was in my bag, and my tripod actually saved my camera,
as in the tripod took the brunt of the fall.
So the camera's fine, but I broke my tripod.
So normally I'd have a little tripod
to sort of balance things down on, but more than ever,
I'm now relying on just balancing my camera
on things like a bin,
so there was no where in Dingwall to...
Am I looking there, or am I looking there?
I couldn't, I tried to find somewhere to buy a tripod,
but you can't buy tripods in Dingwall.
Hang on, because there's this stuff on the platform,
pebbly stones, look what someone's done.
Look what someone's done, look what someone's done.
Someone, I assume called Kate Dinneen, has their name
along with some sort of attractive thing there.
This is making me feel like I should write my name
or the name Duncraig.
I should just do Duncraig. Oh, I know what I'll do.
Who would lock it? It's locked.
Why would you lock it?
Better lock it.
This is a sign I've not seen before.
Look, this station is a request stop
and it very clearly says,
make yourself visible in plenty of time
four foot from the edge of the platform,
and then hold out your hand.
That's like an instruction I've not seen before,
but mainly what I've discovered at Duncraig
is this little building.
I wonder if this is open.
Yes! Oh, man.
This has to be the only octagonal waiting room
I've ever discovered at a station in my life.
Is it also the only place on the railway in Britain
where there is a wooden octagonal waiting room?
Which is just fabulous.
There is a help point, though. Let's do it.
[Customer Services] Customer Services, how can I help?
Yeah, just wanna check what time
the next eastbound train is.
[Customer Services] Where are you going?
Back to Inverness.
[Customer Services] Give me a wee minute.
Thank you.
(help point beeps)
[Customer Services] RIght then pal, your next service is 12:23.
In an hour's time, thank you so much.
Okay, bye. Thanks mate.
So there's a little path that leads up
to a private residence and a bridge,
and then a magnificent view looking down
at the station that way.
I've got a new favourite Scottish request stop.
I definitely complain, don't I sometimes,
it's winter and it's raining.
It's not. It's a beautiful day.
The sun's out, it's lovely.
It obviously wants to make me drop to...
I rarely use the "All the Stations" music on my own channel.
I might have to make an exception.
(inspiring relaxing music)
Yeah, 'cause there's a very short platform,
there's no dot matrix, so you need the help point.
There's no ticket machine.
There is a bin and there is a bike rack.
And ScotRail, I apologise,
But following on from Kate Dinesh,
I've now gone and done my own name
and also the bars and arrows,
so that will be a great thumbnail.
There we go.
So I am possibly, hopefully, meeting someone later,
a surprise guest from "All the Stations,"
come back this way 'cause we're down this way on the line.
And he's sent me some tips on the stations
that I'm gonna do.
Yes, thank you, tipster.
"Duncraig has a lovely octagonal shelter."
Yes, it does.
"The castle," there's a castle here?
"The station probably had its highest number of figures
when the castle was a domestic science school."
We should do passenger figures.
And for passenger figures,
come to the terminal waiting room,
'cause I can now put them here.
Also, this jaunty camera angle isn't me being arty.
Again, that's due to lack of tripod.
All you need to know, this is great,
Duncraig railway station, scrolling down,
scrolling down, scrolling down,
in the 2019 to '20 period, got a perfect square, even,
not rounded, an actual 500.
And that's from like 400 to 300 to 400 to 400
and 500 over the last few years.
So it's averaging high 400s. In the last period it got 500.
Now I'm not normally a fan of just lifting things verbatim
and reading them from Wikipedia, but this is rather good.
It talks about the history,
"It became a public station in 1949,
it was closed for a while in the '60s and '70s,
it was reopened after local train drivers
refused to acknowledge the station's closure
for the intervening 11 years."
So the train drivers used to stop anyway.
I think that's fantastic.
Go and read the Wittypedia,
it's full of comedic references.
Go and read the Wikipedia entry on this fabulous station.
It is just fabulous.
(horn blares)
Oh yeah, okay. Must stick arm out.
Request stop.
(train beeping)
Me again. It's very quiet here.
Right, back on the train, the view is still fabulous.
I'm gonna go to Attadale.
We're gonna reverse, heading back east again.
We'll go to Attadale.
When I get there, we're doing the classic bounce back.
I've only got 12 minutes at Attadale
to do a really quick, "Here we are at Attadale,"
and then I'll turn around, come back west,
come back through this way
and then meet my friend at the stop before Kyle of Lochalsh.
(train beeps)
Attadale. Request stop. Tick.
I've definitely though,
don't know why I'm holding the tick,
I've definitely seen worse views at a station.
Alight here for Attadale Gardens.
Yeah. There's a house apparently over here.
I don't know if I've got time
cause I've literally got 12 minutes.
Oh, what a cute little waiting shelter.
I've got 12 minutes and the train will come back the other
way cause it crosses it the next one down.
But apparently at Attadale house and gardens is a tea room
and it operates on an honesty box system
and they just expect you to drop a pound or two
into the honesty box.
I love the sound of that.
ScotRail, I think we have a problem here.
You're definitely missing some, some posters
or some times, there should be something.
Why is it empty? Where's it gone?
Where's it going? Come on.
Really quickly cause the train is due
in two minutes at 12:56, more passengers here last year
then at Duncraig, that was 500, here it's 1,288.
It did peak at 1300 last year,
so it gets around 12, 1300 a year.
And I am expecting the train
to come around the corner at any second.
That is a very, very quick look at Attadale.
So heading back west, the view is just still stunning.
So we're heading for,
now I have got trouble pronouncing this
because I want to say Durenesh?
When we get there my friend Mark will be there
and I'll just ask him how to pronounce it.
Thank you, Teddy.
See you later.
So is it like a soft E, like Durenesh
or a hard D like Duirnish?
So to help me with the translation,
or the local pronunciation,
always ask the local and I've arranged for a
handy local to turn up in the form of...
This is Mark,
who we first met in All the Stations in 2017.
How's it pronounced?
Eh, in Gaelic, Duirinish.
And in English?
Duirinish.
But the D sounds like a J, it's a very soft D.
Yeah. That's right. Yeah.
I love that. Hello!
Hi. Great to see you, Geoff.
How are you?
Welcome to Duirinish.
So what I can say about Duirinish
is it does have a level crossing.
This is, this is the longest platform I've seen all day.
Cause all the others are tiny. Does it have a help point?
It's got a litter bin, got a couple of benches.
And also my big question is...
The passing point?
Is that the stretch of water, that is Lochcarron?
Is that, is that correct?
Yeah. That's Lochcarron.
But out of, so we're east of Skye,
which is where you're from,
it sort of splits and one loch goes south
and Lochcarron goes east,
but the whole body of water is Lochcarron?
Yeah, that is Lochcarron which comes out into,
well, I suppose Lochalsh.
I've balanced my camera because of lack of tripod
on top of this metal thing.
Oh, well, which moves apparently.
Thanks very much.
As I got off the train just now something
incredible happened.
I was chatting to the lovely Eddie, the guard.
Hello mate, you little legend.
I was telling him how it's impossible to do all six requests
stops in one day and he politely disagreed.
And he then gave me this piece of paper
that shows you how it's done.
And my rookie error is that it's impossible to do if you
start at the Inverness end, at the Eastern end.
But if you start at the Western end, can you see,
now you start here at Duirinish, at 6:19
and you then can go back and forth.
There are just enough trains for you to like bounce back
and forth.
So you have to stay the night at Kyle of Lochalsh.
Start here, go back and forth
and then end your day again in Kyle of Lochalsh.
You can do all six in one day.
I'll go find Mark for a goodbye.
And we'll go to level crossing
and I guess end with an impressive drone shot.
Right so, Mark, there's a tea room?
Yeah, just a short bit along the road there.
I like that cause at Attadale
I couldn't get to,
I didn't have time to go to the tea room there.
No, you wouldn't have, no.
So we'll go and get tea or they do cake?
They do cake.
They do some nice stuff, yeah.
And then you'll drop me back at Kyle later
so I can get the evening circuit back to, okay.
We're going to go to have a catch-up and a gossip.
Thanks for picking me up.
And this makes it slightly easier to do.
Another way to do request stops
is to get someone to give you,
give you rides, give you lifts to and from stations.
That's it, right.
We're gonna go and have a chat.
Thanks very much. Say goodbye to the internet, Mark.
Goodbye, internet.