Lybster

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Lybster (1903-1944)

Opened on the Wick and Lybster Light Railway.

Description

This was the southern terminus of the single track line from Wick. It was a one platform station with a generously sized goods yard. It was in the northern part of Lybster. Lybster Harbour was once a busy fishing port established by the British Fisheries Society but suffered with the collapse of over-fishing of herring around 1900.

This was the most substantial station on the line and the only one with a goods shed. As the terminus it had an engine shed. This was a railway built with a Light Railway Order and the terminus was quite generous for such a line. There was no signal box as the line was worked one-engine-in-steam.

The platform was on the northern side of the site with a loop alongside it. There was a water column. At the east end was Lybster Engine Shed and the goods yard was to the south with a goods shed, which survived closure into the 1990s, on the south side.

The platform mound survives as does the station building which is now the Lybster Golf Club clubhouse. This is a remarkable survivor as the line closed during the Second World War in 1944. Some traffic may have continued beyond the official closure date.

The next station Parkside Halt was nearby just to the north where the line crossed the A99 on the level.

When proposed the line could have terminated further south at Dunbeath.

Tags

Station terminus

External links

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




Chronology Dates

01/07/1903Wick and Lybster Light Railway
Line opened from Wick (Sutherland and Caithness Railway) to Lybster.
03/04/1944Wick and Lybster Light Railway
Lybster to Wick closed to all traffic (temporary, but final closure)
01/02/1951Wick and Lybster Light Railway
Lybster to Wick; official closure date (already closed by April 1944)

News items

08/01/2022Looking Back - news from the John O' 'Groat Journal of yesteryear [John O' Groat Journal]