Location type

Names and dates

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

Description

This station was the terminus of a short branch built by the West Highland Railway to the Caledonian Canal at Banavie. The branch allowed interchange with the steamers operating on the route to Inverness. The station was intentionally above Neptune's Staircase to minimise the number of locks in the onward journey to Inverness, Muirtown Basin.

The building is similar to the other stations of the West Highland Railway. The platform was on the west side of a loop, the line continuing past the station to a headshunt from which, by reversal a siding which reached the top of the canal embankment alongside a quay on the south bank of the canal. There was a goods siding alongside the station loop, on its east side and also approached on a dropping gradient from the headshunt to the north east.

The station opened in 1895, after the rest of the West Highland Railway. Between Banavie and Banavie Junction [1st] (now Fort William Junction) was the large Lochy Viaduct [Fort William].

Connecting with the trains were steamers such as the SS Gondolier, operating the service from the 1890s, which ran north via the Caledonian Canal and Loch Ness to Inverness. The Gondolier was later sunk as a block ship at Scapa Flow in 1939.

In 1901 the Mallaig Extension (West Highland Railway) opened, extending the West Highland Railway west to the new port of Mallaig. A new Banavie station opened at the foot of the locks. The original terminus remained open, as its purpose was interchange with steamers, but was renamed Banavie Pier. It was now on a short branch from Banavie Junction [2nd]. The branch closed to passengers in 1939. The line closed in 1951.

The station building still stands, today it is a house.

Local

To the west is Neptune's Staircase, a series of connected locks on the Caledonian Canal.

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