Dingwall and Skye Railway (inc Kyle of Lochalsh Extension)
Overview
Locale	Scotland
History
Opened	5 August 1870
Replaced by Highland Railway	2 August 1880
Closed	2 August 1880
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend Kyle of Lochalsh Extension Kyle of Lochalsh Duirinish Plockton Dingwall and Skye Railway Stromeferry Attadale Strathcarron Achnashellach Glencarron Platform Luib (Loan) crossing Achnasheen Achanalt Lochluichart (new) Lochluichart (old) Garve Raven's Rock siding Achterneed Strathpeffer Fodderty Junction Inverness and Ross-shire Railway Dingwall Inverness and Ross-shire Railway

TheDingwall and Skye Railway was authorised on 5 July 1865 with the aim of providing a route toSkye and theHebrides. However, due to local objections, another Act of Parliament was required before work could commence. This was passed on 29 May 1868.

With the exception of the Strathpeffer Branch, the line is still open, being the major section of theKyle of Lochalsh Line.

The line toStromeferry opened for passenger traffic on 19 August 1870.^[1] It was 53 miles (85 km) in length and cost £238,500 (equivalent to £28,820,000 in 2023)^[2] to build.

The line was worked by theHighland Railway, and was ultimately absorbed on 2 August 1880. On 29 June 1893 the Highland Railway obtained re-authorisation to build the section to Kyle of Lochalsh. The line was inspected by SirFrancis Marindin of the Board of Trade on 29 October 1897, and opened for traffic on 2 November.^[3] The construction of the10+1⁄2-mile (16.9 km) line cost £200,000 (equivalent to £28,660,000 in 2023)^[2] and was built under the supervision of the engineer Murdoch Paterson. The pier at Kyle of Lochalsh cost £85,000 to build.

The initial aim was to connectSkye toInverness. Although Inverness was Skye's county town at the time, it was easier to get there viaGlasgow. The line opened in 1870, but with its terminus atStromeferry. Boats provided onward connection to Skye and theOuter Hebrides.

The line was extended to Kyle, through some unforgiving terrain; almost all of the extension is in rock cuttings or embankments. At the time it was the most expensive railway ever built in Britain per mile, and much money was provided by the Government.

The line never gained much traffic: connections with the ferries were often unreliable; much freight traffic was stolen by theWest Highland Railway upon its opening. Original ideas, including such ideas as moving fishing boats by rail across Scotland to avoid navigating around, never came to fruition. The line avoided theBeeching Axe due to social necessity, but throughout the 1970s it was variously threatened with closure, but won a reprieve until theCaledonian MacBrayne service toLewis was moved from Kyle toUllapool. It was eventually saved in connection with supplying goods foroil platform fabrication at the nearbyKishorn Yard. The section of line alongLoch Carron is particularly troublesome, and prone tolandslides, often closing that section.

The logical route for the original line would have taken it throughStrathpeffer, aspa town, and one of the few centres of population, but disagreements with landowners - particularly Sir William Mackenzie of Coul House - meant that it bypassed the town, and the line was diverted through Raven Rock. This diversion consequently proved very costly for the Dingwall & Skye Railway company. The original Act had allowed the company to build the railway through to Kyle, but the severe costs of the Strathpeffer diversion in addition to loss of revenue from relevant shareholders^[vague] meant that the money ran out, leading to the line being cut back to Stromeferry, 10 miles (16 km) short of Kyle. It would be another 27 years before the line reached the originally planned terminus.

The short-sightedness of the landowner was to last for a generation, as his son gave permission for the branch line to be built to Strathpeffer by 1884, despite the fact the main line was now already in place. On 3 June 1885, the branch opened, operating for 66 years before it closed on 26 March 1951, with the track being lifted soon afterwards. A station was opened at Achterneed on the original line, being called Strathpeffer, but proved too far from the town to viably harness that revenue, and closed in 1965.

• Inverness and Ross-shire Railway atDingwall
• Garve and Ullapool Railway atGarve (proposed, never built)

• Awdry, Christopher (1990).Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd.ISBN 1-8526-0049-7.OCLC 19514063. CN 8983.
• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995).The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.).Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd.ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7.OCLC 60251199.OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989).Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd.ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0.OCLC 22311137.
• Thomas, John (1977).The Skye Railway. David and Charles.ISBN 0-7153-7383-8.

History of the Far North of Scotland Railway Line

• Highland Railway
• Early Scottish railway companies
• Railway companies established in 1865
• Railway lines opened in 1870
• Railway companies disestablished in 1880

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from February 2018
• Use British English from February 2018
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• All Wikipedia articles needing clarification
• Wikipedia articles needing clarification from April 2020