The Coming of the Railway

The railway was pressing north and got to Inverness by 1861 under the management of Joseph Mitchell. The Inverness and Rossshire Railway was set up to bring as far north as Invergordon into the network. Dingwall station was opened in June 1862 and Invergordon the following year. In 1865 the company became the Highland Railway.

Murdoch Paterson erected the new station buildings in 1886. The original ticket office from the 1860s is still there slightly south of the new building that the Dingwall Burgh Council had insisted be erected far enough back from the rails to allow the old booth to stay in use. The platform was (and is) wider than those at major stations such as Perth and Waverley.

The railway continued to be added to, eventually reaching the north coast at Thurso and Wick—the North Line—and west to Kyle of Lochalsh

Feeding the Country

For centuries drovers had brought their cattle in from the farms around and west as far as Skye to the auctions of Dingwall, Muir of Ord, Falkirk or Crieff and further south to finish on the tables of Edinburgh and London. The railway speeded this process up and increased the business bringing in sheep and chickens from the north and fish from the west.

Notice the three finials on the roof of the station: the Scottish thistle and English rose are two of them, and the horizontal crescent may be a representation of the horns of the thousands of cattle transported through this station

As the business grew many acres were taken up around the station for sidelines and holding pens for the animals. In the 1880s a branch line to Strathpeffer was added for the many people going to take the waters at the pump rooms of that new town’s spa.

War and Peace

The Great War saw the Highlands become a restricted area but the trains still ran carrying pitprops from the forestry as well as the animals as before. The unusually wide platforms permitted whole regiments to be entrained, photos show the 4th Seaforth Highlanders setting off.

Thousands of troops and sailors came through Dingwall, heading north to Scrabster by Thurso for the ferries to the fleet in Scapa Flow or south to the mustering for fighting on the European fronts and further afield. The series of trains set up to carry these men to and from leave, to and from service, between London and Caithness was known as the Jellico Express after the Admiral of the Fleet Lord Jellico. Local woman Miss Mina Mackenzie gained an MBE for her many services to the town, including running a tea stall for these servicepeople and a brass plaque on the wall remembers this service.

By the 1920s many acres were filled with sidings for animals still coming through for the auction mart in the centre of Dingwall and being passed on to other trysts.

Use of the station shrank after the wars, the Spa traffic dried up so the Strathpeffer line was removed, diesel replaced steam so the tower holding the water tank became just a decorative fixture by the bridge. The siding rails were removed. Cambrai Court flats were built were some had been. Lately passenger business has picked up to include commuters and shoppers heading to Inverness and occasional steam-driven locomotives may be seen taking sight-seers out for the scenery of the western route to Kyle.