Kildonan railway station


Kildonan railway station is a railway station near Kildonan Lodge in the Highland council area in the north of Scotland. It is located on the Far North Line. Trains stop on request.
The station opened on 28 July 1874. On 7 February 1884 there was an accident at the station. A special fish train from Wick approached the station when it derailed and ploughed up several hundred yards of track. The fireman, Alexander Campbell of Wick, died and the engine driver, David Mathieson of Wick was badly injured.
In 1952 the station was awarded a special class award in the British Railway Best Kept Stations Competition.
It is currently served by four trains each day to Inverness and three trains in the opposite direction to Wick, with one train in each direction on a Sunday. Due to the extremely sparse and small population it serves, Kildonan is one of the least used stations in the country, although its reputation means that it has a higher patronage than would be expected. It is currently the 16th least used railway station in the United Kingdom and the 2nd least used on the Far North Line.
The station is from, and has a single platform which is long enough for a three-coach train.
On the 10 June 2018, it was announced that Hitrans had proposed the station for closure, shaving four minutes off journey times on the Inverness to Thurso/Wick route and put application in to Transport Scotland to consider the proposals. However following objections by three local councillors Hitrans had withdrawn the application.