The Garve and Ullapool Railway was one of several branch railway-lines proposed for the North-West Highlands of Scotland, in the 1880s and 1890s. The project received approval from the Westminster Parliament by means of a Local Act of 14 August 1890. The line did not gain financial backing and was never constructed. Renewed attempts to build it were made in 1896, 1901, 1918 and 1945, again with no success.
Social background
In the early 1880s, long-term deprivation and scarceness of land drove several communities on the West of Scotland to carry out acts of civil disobedience – rent-strikes and land-raids - collectively termed ‘The Crofters’ War’. This also resulted in the formation of the Highland Land League and a political party named The Crofters Party which returned several members to the Westminster Parliament. In the investigations which were set up in the aftermath of these events, principally driven by the Napier Commission of 1883, it was acknowledged that the people of the west Highlands and Islands had a justifiable grievance.
In an effort to alleviate conditions, proposals were made, firstly, to reform the laws of land-ownership, and secondly, to develop the fisheries by opening up markets in the British cities. This latter goal was to be achieved primarily by improving transport-links (i.e. harbours and railways) between the west coast and central Scotland and the south.
All of this also came at a time when various private companies were developing – or wishing to develop – railway lines across Scotland, to capitalise on the Victorian tourist boom and the increased leisure-time of the middle- and upper-classes. Principal among these companies were Great North of Scotland Railway, the Highland Railway and the Caledonian Railway. All of these companies, and several more promoters besides, were anxious to have their proposals adopted by Parliament and – more importantly – funded from the taxpayers’ purse.
History
In 1890, six lines connecting the west of north Scotland to the central spine were to be considered by a Parliamentary Commission. These were: the extension of the Dingwall and Skye Railway from Stromeferry to Kyle of Lochalsh the extension of the West Highland line from Banavie to Mallaig a line from Garve to Ullapool, leading from the Dingwall and Skye Railway from Achnasheen to Aultbea, also leading from the Dingwall and Skye Railway from Lairg to Laxford, leading from the Far North Line from Culrain to Lochinver, also leading from the Far North Line
All six lines were designed to open up access to new or established fishing ports and/or passenger-boat ports on the west coast.
Proposal and route
The specific plan for the Garve and Ullapool Railway was first proposed in January 1889 by local landowners in the Lochbroom and Assynt area, who formally invited the Highland Railway to construct a line to Ullapool. The proposal was backed by Sir John Fowler, engineer in charge of the building of the Forth Bridge, and a number of local MPs and luminaries. The Highland Line company was not enthusiastic, since it had its own plans to drive a line through to Kyle of Lochalsh and was prepared to invest £120,000 to do so; but it agreed to conduct a brief survey, which was undertaken in July 1889, at a cost of £80.
The route laid out on the plans showed the line branching off the Dingwall to Skye line about east of Garve station, at a height of around . It then led in a north-westerly direction, following the right (south/west) bank of the Black Water river (in essence, parallelling the route of the modern A835 road); it then passed through the glen at Glascarnoch (note that Loch Glascarnoch did not exist then – it is a reservoir created in the mid-1950s ), rising to and continued as far as Braemore Lodge (where the A832 road now branches off). A steep descent of in the space of - a challenging gradient of 1-in-26 - would have been required to bring the line to sea-level at the head of Loch Broom; but the engineers instead planned to construct a tunnel through the hillside on the west side of the descent, and then descend to the mouth of the River Broom, after which the line would follow the coast as far as Ullapool. The terminus would have been at the junction of Shore Street and Quay Street, at the end of the pier. The total measured distance was just over (to be precise: thirty-three miles five furlongs four chains and fifty links).
An original suggestion by the proposers for an onward route between Ullapool and Lochinver was never surveyed or planned in any detail.