okay well i'm here at Inverness station this morning it's about 8 45 i'm taking
the train behind me down to duncraig castle i'm going to ask the conductor to let me off there
do a bit of walking around go and see plockton get down to duirinish
and hail the train back and this afternoon so i'm going to take a few
shots on the way hope you enjoy the video and i'll see you later cheers for now the first
thing i noticed after boarding the train was how internally clean and tidy it was
unfortunately that could not be said about the exterior the windows were disappointingly dirty
and were not really conducive to shooting great footage of the scenery as we made our way west
so it's just as well i can take this opportunity to show you a map of our route
so starting in inverness i'll be heading north to dingwall where we will then branch
off to the left the single track line then heads west passing numerous small stations
and several request stops including duncraig which as i said would be my first port of call
i then intend to walk along the coast of plockton take another train one stop to duirnish
that's another request stop by the way when i get off there i'm going to walk around a little
bit then flag down the last train of the day to kyle of lochalsh which is the end of the line
the standard units that scotrail use on this line are two-car class 158's with a journey time
of around two and a half hours from end to end the provision of at-seat usb power is a welcome sight
there's also free and useable wi-fi on board you will note here that we're just passing
achnashellac which is one of the request stops unfortunately nobody wants to get on or off today
i don't know about the summer but at the time of my trip there was zero catering
on board so it's best to bring your own there's plenty of outlets in and around
inverness station if you want to get something before you get on the train
the weather was brightening up by this point and as i gazed out the window i
started to think about why the mainly single track line was really built in the first place
construction of the line from inverness was in three phases the first section from inverness to
dingwall opened in 1864 followed by the next section from dingwall to stromeferry in 1870
stromeferry on the south shore of loch carron was an obvious terminus at the time enabling railway
passengers to connect with the steamer service that would take them on to the isles of skye, lewis
and other mainland villages the station buildings here were noticeably larger than other stations
up until 1970 there was also a regular ferry service to north strome
on the other side of the loch the completion of the stromeferry bypass
made that particular crossing unviable in the end
as we made our way further west the scenery became more and more alluring
it definitely passed the 'would I live here test' with a top score of 10 out of 10
and just to complete our brief history of the line the last section
from stromeferry to kyle of localsh was completed in 1897.
this section includes the request stop of duncraig where it was just about time to alight
thank you very much see you later
well that is the train gone i'm at duncraig station request stop i should say
so the guard very kind of let me out there was only one door that i could use
it's quite a short platform incidentally it's quite well known
this particular station it's actually grade b listed for its octagonal waiting
room and we're going to take a look at that in a minute so why don't you come with me we're
going to have a bit of a walk around and i'll show you some of the sights see you in a bit
so duncraig station request stop it was originally built for duncraig castle which
i believe is just past the bridge over there and they tried to close it down twice
once in the beeching cuts and once again in i think it was the 1970s might be the 90's
correct me if i'm wrong with that and interestingly the guys that
used to drive the trains at the time refused to recognize this for 11 years and continued to stop
at the platform and i'm glad they do today because otherwise i wouldn't have been able to get off
and i've got to say there's nobody about fantastic place for solitude and silence if you like that
kind of thing i certainly do there's some great views over there towards plockton which is where
i'm going to be heading so it looks like there's some blue skies around not too much rain now
although i have got changed so we'll see how we go and i'll see you in a little bit
it's a very easy one and a half mile walk from duncraig to
plockton the footpath actually crosses the line at one point and it goes underneath
the line as another small tunnel has been constructed to help with that
it was a little bit wet at the time of my visit but the footpath is fine under foot
and is well signposted
the paths are turning into small streams nothing too severe fortunately
they're quite easily navigable i'm about half a mile from plockton looking forward to some sights of
the loch as we drop down alongside it in the next few minutes whoops I nearly went there
and before i knew it i was entering the village of plockton
pretty quiet at the moment for obvious reasons i would imagine it's really busy in the summer
there are some amazing views back up the log from this particular point
really picturesque and i can see why people come here in the droves
well that's plockton for you
very nice it's got a road, road's reasonably quiet a few cars kicking about but it's got a road and
i'm not really into roads today i'm heading back to the station at plockton plan is to catch a train
to kyle of localsh and back out again to duirinish where there are no roads really which is what
i want a bit of zen today i think and that's what i'm hoping to get then catch the later train back
plockton has a very picturesque station
as i made my way down towards it i was obviously recognized due to my fame on youtube
and greeted accordingly (joke)
i noticed that the actual station building is one of these holiday let type things
these days which is a bit of shame in a way it would have been nice if it would have
actually been kept for its original purpose anyway it was back on the train time for a
quick hop down to the next station on the line which was duirinish
thanks see you later
duirinish brilliant a little waiting room for me to go and have some lunch looks quite
nice the weather is the sun's actually just come out as i said that the weather is looking pretty
good still got my wet weather gear on because it'll change just like that but i'm gonna
have to take a walk around here for about three hours so enjoy the video i'll see you later
i took a circular route north from duirinish station
which took me first to a beautiful little bay called port ban i think it's pronounced
after that i headed a little bit north west towards eorna
and then i made my way still in an anti-clockwise direction
down to port cam which was a beautiful little inlet
the walk eventually took me back over the line into a little hamlet called drumbuie
and before i knew it i was back on the platform at duirinish
waiting for the last train of the day west to the kyle of localsh
the help point over there i'm in duirinish station again by the way in the waiting
room shed and i pressed it i was expected to hear this recorded message of some timetables
and within about half a second this voice came through the speaker hello can i help you okay
i'm at duirinish station just want to know when the next train is five past four to the
kyle of localsh so i'm catching that it's only gonna be about 20 minutes
so yeah it'll give me an hour in kyle of lochalsh which i wasn't expecting so great i'll see you later
it took about 10 minutes to get from duirinish to kyle of lochalsh
and again there was some fantastic scenery as the train hugged the coastline
quite closely for its final few miles by this time the weather had deteriorated rapidly
and it was quite nice to get back on the train all the trains i were on were quite warm and cozy
and here we are at our final destination kyle of lochalsh
where the station is pretty much on the harbour side
i would have about 45 minutes to go and get some provisions for the journey back and it would then be time to board the train again
okay guys and here we are at the end of the line kyle of localsh i finally made it
the weather's took a bit of a turn for the worst but ive had a good day overall i hope you've enjoyed
watching the content i've really enjoyed making it it's been a great day really if you like this
video then please subscribe up there that would be really great if you could and if i've got
anything wrong or you've got anything to say about the video then please leave some comments below
i'm sure you will thanks very much for watching and i'll see you again next time cheers for now