Rannoch Station

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Introduction

Rannoch Station is about as far from anywhere as a railway gets in Britain. It sits out on the eastern edge of Rannoch Moor, a wide, treeless expanse of bog and hill that's often called one of the last true wildernesses left in the country. The station opened in 1894 as part of the West Highland Line, and building it was no small feat. The tracks had to be floated across the moor on a raft of brushwood, earth and ash to stop them sinking, the work of thousands of men over five years. Look for the carved stone head at the north end of the platform, cut by railway workers in honour of the director who saved the line from bankruptcy. The station is unmanned now, but the old platform buildings have found a second life. There's a tearoom serving homemade soup and cake, a gift shop stocked with local books, maps and walkers' supplies, and a small exhibition on the moor and the railway's history next door. Trains still stop here daily. Getting off one is a strange, brilliant feeling.

Location

Rannoch Station lies at the end of a long single-track road on the eastern edge of Rannoch Moor, in Highland Perthshire. It's about 40 miles from Pitlochry, the nearest town, and 18 miles west of Kinloch Rannoch. The West Highland Line stops here, with Corrour one stop north.

What's nearby

The short walk to Loch Laidon is the obvious one, a mile or so from the platform to a stretch of pale sandy shore with the moor rolling out behind it. Cross the tracks, follow the signs for Glencoe, and watch for the deer that live out here. Right beside the station is the Moor of Rannoch restaurant, a remote and rather good place to eat or stay the night if you want to sit with the silence a while longer. Book well ahead. The train is the real draw, though. One stop north is Corrour, the highest and most remote station in Britain, with no public road to it at all. The Caledonian Sleeper passes through Rannoch too, running between London and Fort William, so you can fall asleep in the city and wake up on the moor. East, the road winds back along Loch Rannoch towards Kinloch Rannoch and, eventually, Pitlochry, the nearest town of any size at roughly 40 miles off. There's fine trout fishing on the moor's lochs along the way.