Culloden Moor

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Culloden Moor (1898-1965)

Opened on the Inverness and Aviemore Direct Railway (Highland Railway).

Description

This was a two platform station just to the north of the large Culloden Viaduct. In addition to serving the local community the station was specifically advertised as being close to the Culloden Battlefield Memorial.

Today the platforms remain intact but the buildings, the main one of which was at the south end on the southbound platform, are gone. (Similar buildings were at Daviot and Tomatin.) A number of former railway houses remain near the station site - the station master's house and a row of railwaymen's cottages.

Water columns were provided on both platforms. The water tank was on the northbound platform.

The goods yard was at the south end, east side of the line, and approached from the south. This was the are in which the material from the cutting to the north west was deposited during construction. In the 1920s, the station's sidings were used to store redundant locomotives.

The signal box was on the southbound platform, south of the station building and goods shed (which backed onto the platform). It opened with the station in 1898.

Due to the proximity of the road bridge, which crossed the station's platforms, the lattice footbridge at the south end of the station was removed in the 1920s.

The line south to Daviot was singled in 1968.

There was a bitumen depot at the south end, east side of the line. Trains delivering here would continue north to Millburn Yard, Inverness, where had sidings with heating for the deliveries to Culloden.

Unfortunately the bitument depot closed in the late 1980s / early 1990s when the traffic from Ardrossan Refinery ceased.

The signal box closed in 1987 when it was taken over by the Inverness Signalling Centre.

There has been considerable development of new housing to the west of the former station at Balloch and Smithton since the station's closure, an area through which the line runs.

Local

The Culloden Battlefield Memorial is a mile to the west.

Tags

Station

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map




Nearby stations
Castle Stuart Platform
Dalcross
Allanfearn
Inverness Airport [Station]
Daviot
Gollanfield
Fort George [1st]
Inverness
Inverness Innes Street Ticket Platform
Fort George [2nd]
Inverness Harbour [Station]
Ness Islands Railway
Moy
Fortrose
Clachnaharry
Culloden Viaduct
Clava Bridge
Leanach Quarry
Dalcross Timber Siding
Cradlehall Crossovers
Tourist/other
Clava Cairns
Cumberland^s Stone
Culloden Battlefield Memorial
Dalcross Castle
Culloden House
Castle Stuart
Lower Cullernie Level Crossing
Cradlehall House
Inverness Airport [Airport]
Raigmore Level Crossing
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.


A death at the unopened station


Murdoch Paterson, engineer of the line between Aviemore and Inverness via Carrbridge, did not live to see the line completely open. He was in ill health from about 1890. He died aged 72 at Culloden Moor station's railway cottage, where he was staying while overseeing the line's construction, on the 9th of August 1898. The line opened on the 1st of November 1898.

Anne-Mary Paterson, great grand-niece of Murdoch (and William) Paterson relates in 'Pioneers of the Highland Tracks: William & Murdoch Paterson - A Biography of two Railway Engineers' that
He considered it his masterpiece and would have realised it would stand for many years as a emorial to him but that he would never cross it on a train. As he did not wish to leave this world without crossing it for one last time, he asked if the mean working on the finishing touches would put him on a trolley so that he could be pushed across. He arrived back at the stationmaster's house after this outing pleased that everything was in order and the line nearly complete for opening.


The cottage still stands, now a private house, to the west of the station site.


Chronology Dates

03/05/1965Aberfeldy Branch (Inverness and Perth Junction Railway)
Inverness and Perth Junction Railway
Aberfeldy branch closed, along with the closure of stations on the Highland Main Line with the withdrawal of local trains. On the branch Aberfeldy, Grandtully, Balnaguard Halt closed along with the junction station Ballinluig. South of the junction, on the main line, Dalguise and Murthly closed. To the north Killiecrankie, Struan, Dalnaspidal, Tomatin, Moy, Daviot, and Culloden Moor closed.
27/04/2000Inverness and Aviemore Direct Line (Highland Railway)
Line closed from 27 April to 16 May due to embankment washout near Culloden Moor.