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Description

This is a two faced island platform terminus on the western seaboard of Scotland. Nearby is the Caledonian MacBrayne pier for Armadale Pier in Skye. A number of locations are served from Mallaig Pier. The station building is at the north (buffer) end of the station. It is of two storeys and in house style. The terminus building lost its glazed platform canopy in 1977. A sea wall protected passengers from the element, but this was lost in 1987 during new road preparation works.

There had been a locomotive shed, Mallaig Shed, and sidings continued to the pier, but are lifted. The siding on the east side of the station was used until the 1980s to deliver oil for the Caledonian MacBrayne vessels.

The signal box was south of the station and on the east side of the line. It was considered to have the best view from any signal box in Scotland with its view out to the islands. It became a ground frame in 1982 and has since been replaced with a ground frame.

With the building of the new road into Mallaig in the late 1980s the railway no longer borders the rocky shoreline and the new road has absorbed the area of the sidings on the west side of the station.

Despite the reduction in facilities this is a fine station which retains its station building. In summer it can be very busy with the Jacobite and during other train arrivals. A turntable to allow steam engines to turn would be a good addition.

Near the station a double row of railway cottages are now privately owned.

The bay is an ancient harbour. Before the coming of the railway the bay was called Acairseid na Coille Moire with a small pier on its west side, Port Faochagach (built in 1846, to improve for local people after the potato famine, by Lord Lovat the landowner). Mallaig itself was a few scattered buildings to the north east. The hill of Cnoc na Malaidh or Cruach Mhalaig is above.

Just before the arrival of the railway a small village with a post office was developing on the west side of the bay which had become Mallaig Harbour.

The railway approached the harbour from the south, running along the coast. The railway built an additional pier to the north of the existing pier on the west side of the bay.

A breakwater was later added north of the railway pier.

In recent years the village has undergone a transformation from an almost shanty town utilitarian location to a tourist destination, which still supports the fishing industry and a port for the isles.

Local

Mallaig Pier is the port for Armadale Pier on Skye, Lochboisdale Pier on South Uist, Inverie in Knoydart and the Small Isles; Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna. Caledonian MacBrayne

The Jacobite steam train operates in the summer between Fort William and Mallaig. The Jacobite

Mallaig Heritage

Mallaig Harbour Authority

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