The West Highland Line
Mary Miers takes the train
In all my years of sleeper travel, few memories beat that of boarding the southbound sleeper at Britain’s highest and remotest station, 1,339ft up on the edge of Rannoch Moor. Here, at the lone halt of Corrour, 10 miles from the nearest road, you can while away the evening waiting for your train in the ‘mountain refuge’ that the Corrour estate has created out of the old station house. How wonderful to sit by the fire with a plate of venison stew and a glass of good wine after a day in the hills—or, if alighting off the northbound sleeper, to breakfast on fresh coffee and still-warm scones before setting off on foot.
Catching the night train, it’s important to be on the platform well in time, as this is a request stop and passengers have been known to be stranded. In winter, I’ve stood alone in the snow watching a pair of yellow eyes approaching slowly from afar—the only sign of life in the vast wilderness. Then, emerging from the dark like a great beast, the train stands panting at the platform for a few minutes before heading on south through Scotland’s Empty Quarter.
The thrill of falling asleep to the rhythm of the wheels as you speed through the night and then waking up to the bustle of Euston station at rush hour never dies.
Daytime journeys on the West Highland Line are also exhilarating, as the route between Glasgow and Mallaig is Scotland at its most sublime. From Glasgow, the train runs above the banks of the Clyde, Gareloch and Loch Lomond, before pulling up Glenfalloch to the lonesome junction of Crianlarich, where the Oban and Fort William lines divide. Then on over Rannoch Moor to Loch Treig at the base of Ben nevis and the final thrill before Fort William: the spectacular Monessie Gorge.
Even the most seasoned traveller cannot fail to marvel at the sheer bravado of this railway, which crosses the peat bogs of Rannoch Moor on a floating platform of turf and brushwood and makes daring leaps over rivers and ravines.
‘Added to this wild beauty is Moidart’s stirring history, which adds a frisson of romance. This is the Jacobite heartland
A particular favourite are the great horseshoe curves and viaducts, most impressively where the line contours round the flank of Ben Doran between Upper Tyndrum and Bridge of Orchy and, further on at Glenfinnan, where it traverses the river on a crescent of 21 arches 100ft above the glen.
The Glasgow to Fort William section opened in 1894, its extension to Mallaig in 1901. In a region where communities within living memory lived far from any road, the railway provided a vital link to the herring fishings and island ferries of the Minch.
Another feature of the route is its distinctive station architecture: charming Swiss-chalet style buildings all surrounded by prettily planted gardens, although the stops are mostly unmanned today. Some, such as Corrour and Spean Bridge, have become restaurants, others—bridge of Orchy and Tulloch—bunk houses and Glenfinnan is a railway museum with a tea room installed in an old carriage.
Once you’re at Glenfinnan, you’re in the heart of na Garbh Crìochan—the Rough Bounds—with its tumble of rock-crazed hills descending to lower wooded slopes above deep-winding sea lochs and skerried bays.
Added to this wild beauty is Moidart’s stirring history, which cannot fail to add a frisson of romance. For this is the Jacobite heartland, where Bonnie Prince Charlie first landed and last set foot on the British mainland—the train takes you past the very place on Loch nan Uamh—and where, after the debacle of Culloden, he spent months skulking in the heather.
It was also the secret wartime base of the SOE, where the legendary loyalty of the Highlanders again prevailed. Hitler never
discovered that this was the Allies’ paramilitary training ground; fascinating evidence of that era still survives.
The final miles before Mallaig are, for many travellers, the best, with the white sands of Morar (immortalised by the 1983 film Local Hero) and mesmerising views to Eigg, Rum and Muck and the crenellated mountain ridges of the Cuillins.
Today, the ‘iron road to the isles’ is largely a conduit for tourists, hailed as one of the great railway journeys of the world. Steam returned to the line in 1984 and the Jacobite now runs twice daily between Fort William and Mallaig during the season. Since 2001, when Warner Bros filmed parts of the ‘Harry Potter’ films at Glenfinnan, it’s been synonymous with the Hogwarts Express.
If I have a regret, it’s that Robert (‘Concrete Bob’) Mcalpine’s revolutionary feat of concrete engineering is now referred to as the ‘Harry Potter’ line and Scotrail regulars must fight for seats with hordes of Potter fans in summer.