Ardgay railway station

Ardgay railway station is a railway station serving the village of Ardgay and its neighbour Bonar Bridge in the Highland council area of Scotland. The station is on the Far North Line, 57 miles 70 chains (93.1 km) from Inverness, between Tain and Culrain.[3]

Ardgay

Scottish Gaelic: Àird Ghaoithe[1]
General information
LocationArdgay, Highland
Scotland
Coordinates57.8816°N 4.3622°W / 57.8816; -4.3622
Grid referenceNH600904
Managed byScotRail
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeARD
History
Original companyInverness and Ross-shire Railway / Sutherland Railway
Pre-groupingHighland Railway
Post-groupingLMSR
Key dates
1 October 1864Opened as Bonar Bridge
2 May 1977Renamed as Ardgay
Passengers
2016/17 7,144
2017/18 7,140
2018/19 6,998
2019/20 6,408
2020/21 624
Listed Building – Category C(S)
Designated14 September 1988
Reference no.LB7164[2]
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

Opened on 1 October 1864 as Bonar Bridge by the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway and designed by Joseph Mitchell,[4][2] it became the meeting point of the Sutherland Railway and the Inverness and Ross-shire Railway. The station joined the Highland Railway, later becoming part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923; it then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. It was renamed Ardgay on 2 May 1977. When sectorisation was introduced by British Rail in the 1980s, the station was served by ScotRail until the privatisation of British Rail.

Stationmasters
  • Mr. Florence Turnbull 1865 - 1872[5] (formerly station master at Struan, afterwards station master at Pitlochry)
  • John McBean 1872 - 1873[6] (formerly station master at Lairg, afterwards station master at Strathcarron)
  • Alexander Murray 1873 - 1887[7] (afterwards station master at Elgin)
  • Mr. Fraser 1887 - 1897[8] (formerly station master at Rogart, afterwards station master at Boat of Garten)
  • James A Ellis from 1897
  • Francis Ross ca. 1903
  • George Hepburn ca. 1911 ca. 1913
  • Mr. MacGregor
  • Mr. MacLennan until 1937[9]
  • Donald Mackenzie from 1937 - ca. 1942
  • John Macdonald

Platform layout
The station as seen from the footbridge

The station has a passing loop 32 chains (640 m) long, flanked by two platforms. Platform 1 on the southbound line can accommodate trains having ten coaches, but platform 2 on the northbound line can only hold five.[10]

Facilities

Both platforms have benches, but only platform 1 has a designated waiting area, as seen in the photo on the left. Platform 2 also has a help point, and there is a car park and bike racks adjacent to it. Platform 2 has step-free access, but platform 1 can only be accessed from the footbridge.[11] As there are no facilities to purchase tickets, passengers must buy one in advance, or from the guard on the train.

Passenger volume
Passenger Volume at Ardgay[12]
  2002-03 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21
Entries and exits 2,503 2,297 3,067 3,964 5,851 6,516 7,388 7,404 8,890 8,108 8,806 8,416 6,732 7,144 7,140 6,998 6,408 624

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

On Mondays to Saturdays, there are seven trains a day southbound to Inverness and five a day northbound, four of which continue on to Wick (the other terminates here). On Sundays, there is one train in each direction.[13]

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Tain   ScotRail
Far North Line		   Culrain or Lairg or Terminates here
  Historical railways  
Mid Fearn Halt
Line open; Station closed		   Highland Railway
Inverness and Ross-shire Railway
Sutherland Railway
  Culrain
Line and Station open

References
  1. Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
  2. "ARDGAY RAILWAY STATION AND FOOTBRIDGE". Historic Scotland. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  3. Bridge, Mike, ed. (2017). TRACKatlas of Mainland Britain: A Comprehensive Geographic Atlas Showing the Rail Network of Great Britain (3rd ed.). Sheffield: Platform 5 Publishing Ltd. p. 102. ISBN 978 1909431 26 3.
  4. "Inverness and Aberdeen Junction". London Evening Standard. England. 6 October 1864. Retrieved 20 July 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. "Presentation to a Late Townsman". Elgin Courant, and Morayshire Advertiser. Scotland. 21 November 1873. Retrieved 13 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. "Melancholy Death of a Stationmaster". Glasgow Herald. Scotland. 2 May 1873. Retrieved 13 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. "Elgin - Railway Appointments". Aberdeen Evening Express. Scotland. 21 September 1887. Retrieved 13 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. "Boat of Garten. The New Station Master". Elgin Courant, and Morayshire Advertiser. Scotland. 2 July 1897. Retrieved 13 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. "Bonar Bridge Station Agent Honoured". Aberdeen Press and Journal. Scotland. 1 April 1937. Retrieved 13 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. Brailsford 2017, map 20A.
  11. "National Rail Enquiries -". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  12. "Estimates of station usage | ORR Data Portal". dataportal.orr.gov.uk. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  13. eNRT December 2021 Edition, Table 219

Bibliography


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