The Skye Railway
- The Skye Railway
- The railway to Skye between Inverness and Kyle of Lochalsh is one of the major scenic Highland rail routes in Scotland. No longer serving as part of the through route to the Outer Hebrides it still nevertheless plays an important part in Scottish tourism, having escaped the aftermath of the Beeching cuts.
- It has a fascinating and noble past. Of the eight directors who guided the affairs of the Dingwall & Skye Railway three lived in Highland castles (the chairman had two castles), one was a noble lord, another was a member of parliament, two gave London club addresses and yet another was an English squire turned Highland Laird. The Skye railway was like that.
- The authors West Highland Railway and Callander & Oban Railway are well known, and in this volume he tells the story of the third of the West Highland lines. The narrative begins in the days when arrogant feudal overlords fought like fury to keep the railways out of the glens, and ends with the lines devoted public fighting just as determinedly to prevent its closure. Colourful characters flit through the pages - MacLeod of MacLeod, the Master of Lovat, John Fowler of later Forth Bridge fame, and Joseph Mitchell, Highland engineer extraordinary. There was action and incident in plenty along the 63½ mile line that connects the eastern and western seas across one of Scotlands most remote and beautiful regions.
- Using many hithert untapped sources, the author unfolds the story of the Skye railway in a detail not seen before. Happily for the moment, the line is still with us and is a source of delight to tourists discovering it for the first time, or old friends returning to savour its magic again.
- 168 pages, 1977, Hardback with pictorial boards, no dust jacket fitted, 5¾" x 8¾"
- ISBN-10 0715373838
- ISBN-13 9780715373835
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Railway Line & Region Histories
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