Cults

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Cults (1853-1966)

Opened on the Deeside Railway.

Description

This was a two platform station just east of the Den of Cults. The main station building was on the eastbound platform. There was a goods yard to the north, approached from the east.

The eastbound platform was the original when the line first opened as a single track. This had a siding where the second track was laid during doubling, that siding being approached from the east.

The line from the east was doubled in 1884.

Before doubling the station has a loop and west and east boxes.

The east signal box was replaced in 1890 for line doubling to the west. It was on the eastbound platform, about midway along and east of the main station building. Doubling was in 1892 and with this the west box closed, the remaining east box becoming simply 'Cults'.

The box became a ground frame in 1950.

After the line was singled in 1951, the eastbound platform remained in use. The box was replaced with an actual ground frame in 1953.

The station closed to passengers in 1966. The line closed in 1967.

The station building and two platforms remain intact here, although the westbound one is difficult to see in summer.

The original station here, (it relocated around 1855), may have been south of Cults House, just to the west.

The Ordnance Survey Name Book in 1863 described the station <

A station on the Deeside Railway for goods and passengers. It is about 4 Miles from Aberdeen and built of wood.

Tags

Station footpath

External links

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



Chronology Dates

07/09/1853Deeside Railway
Line opened from Aberdeen [Ferryhill] to Banchory [1st]. Stations at : Cults, Murtle, Culter, Park, Mills of Drum, the private Crathes Castle Platform, and Banchory.
14/06/1884Deeside Railway
Doubled from Ferryhill Junction to Cults.
13/07/1892Deeside Railway
Doubled from Cults to Murtle.
  /  /1951Deeside Railway
Line singled from Park to Culter, Murtle, Cults and Ferryhill Junction. Drum station and signal box closed.
28/02/1966Deeside Railway Deeside Extension Railway Aboyne and Braemar Railway
Ballater, Cambus O' May, Dinnet, Aboyne, Dess, Lumphanan, Torphins, Glassel, Dee Street Halt, Banchory [2nd], Crathes, Park, Culter and Cults closed to passengers.

News items

08/11/2023Approved: Former Cults Station will become cafe as council votes to listen to the people [Press and Journal]
10/07/2023Scores of locals back new bid to turn Cults Railway Station into cafe and Haddo Estate mansion being modernised [Press and Journal]
29/05/2021A birds eye view of the old communities of Aberdeen [Press and Journal]
16/02/2021Plans lodged to turn former Aberdeen railway station into cafe [Evening Express]

Books


A History of the Great North of Scotland Railway

Deeside Line: The North-east's Royal Railway

Great North of Scotland Railway (History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands, vol. 3)

Great North of Scotland Railway Album

Great North of Scotland Railway Album

History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands: Great North of Scotland Railway v. 3

Royal Deeside's Railway: Aberdeen to Ballater

Scotland’s Lost Branch Lines: Where Beeching Got It Wrong

The Great North of Scotland Railway - A New History