Location type

Name and dates

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Description

This was a single platform station to the north east of a level crossing by the River Tweed.

The platform was on the north side of the line with a waiting shelter. A station cottage was just to the north. There was no goods yard. It replaced an earlier halt Abbotsford Ferry [1st].

Closure to regular passenger trains came in 1931, but the platform was retained for excursion traffic.

Portions of the platform, in timber, remain.

The ferry over the Tweed is no longer in operation.

A photograph by Iain R. Smith in his Scotland's Lost Railways 1. the Borders shows the station in 1935 with a considerable crowd on the platform. His caption commented

Proof that Border railways carried heavy traffic in their heyday can be seen in this picture of Abbotsford Ferry station on the Selkirk line in 1935. The waiting passengers are returning to Galashiels after attending the crossing of the Tweed at the Braw Lads Gathering celebration.

Local

The Abbots Ford itself is associated with Melrose Abbey and is not at this location but further north. The Abbotsford Ferry was a ferry service, not a ford.

The name Abbotsford was adopted by Sir Walter Scott for the house he built himself to the south of the ford Abbotsford . The station came to be associated with visits to the house, it was actively promoted as the station for the house. It should be noted, however, that the house was over a mile to the north east on the south bank. The Abbotsford Ferry did not run to the house, but across the river.

Abbotsford

The Braw Lads Gathering crosses at the original Abbots Ferry.

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