Station to station

Paul Kirkwood concludes his two-day bike ride around Perthshire by pedalling from the wilds of Rannoch Moor all the way back to Pitlochry

It was nine o'clock on a Sunday night and I couldn't work out why my fellow guests were checking out of our remote hotel.

Like them, I'd just had dinner and my thoughts were turning to bed. That, as it happens, was where they were bound – on the sleeper train that remarkably connects Rannoch Station, a hamlet of just the hotel and a cottage, with London.

I watched the group cross the footbridge to the platform through the windows of a rain-flecked telephone box while I phoned home. The train in the station was like a dragon in its lair, burring in the gloom. A party of Dutch motorcyclists who had also been dining in the hotel roared away into the night leaving me suddenly alone. By the time I was eating breakfast the following morning, contemplating my bike ride back to Pitlochry, the sleeper passengers were arriving at Euston, ready for a day's work.

The previous day I had also used the railway line – to hop just one stop north and alight at Corrour, an even more isolated station. Literally all that is there amidst the moors is the station master's house, a turbine and two platforms. The novelty of the halt, a walk around Loch Ossian and a scenic trip further north by rail to Fort William made for an enjoyable day out.

Even if you are not intending to travel by rail, Rannoch Station is well worth a visit. According to one story the West Highland line was instigated by a laird further north who wanted to get his post and papers earlier.

Although much was made of bene...

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• By : Paul Kirkwood
• In : Outdoor Scotland
• Issue : 28
• Page : 58
• Words : 1,092