Duchal Moor Grouse Railway

This railway runs uphill from by the High Reservoir for Kilmacolm into the wilds of Duchal Moor.

The railway was built in 1922 by Sir James Lithgow, the Shipbuilder, to keep men employed after a drop in ship orders following the war. The line was used to provide rail access to the shooting butts, to take grouse shooting parties into the hills. The line remained in use until the late 1970s, but is now decrepit.

Supported on wooden sleepers, the line had three branches - one northward to the Laverock Stone, another westward to the Laird's Seat and the third southward to Smeath Hill. The line started at Hardridge Farm, where the engines and passenger-wagons were stored in a corrugated iron shed. The 24-inch gauge tracks were a combination of ex-First World War and former colliery light railway lines. The sleepers were from dismantled warships while the two petrol-driven engines had been in use at an ordnance factory at Gretna. Among the many visitors said to have ridden on the Grouse Railway was King Edward VIII during a shooting excursion to Scotland. The line remained in use until the 1970’s. The engines and wagons remain preserved, and sections of track, points and buffers remain in place.

The railway is narrow gauge. There was a station (parts of the platform still exist) and locomotive shed (still standing) by the reservoir. The route to the north of Hardridge Hill is lifted, the rest of the route appears to be intact. Much of the track is obscured by moor and can only be detected as a depression in the peat. The eastern triangular junction is largely complete and crossed by a recent dirt road. The points remain at all three corners, complete with weighted point level. There is a siding at Lairds Seat.

The line to the south crosses a small viaduct (built from two 'I' beams and a sleepers), possibly the largest such structure on the railway. The western triangular junction is more overgrown than the eastern one. The western points here are overgrown completely, but the western and southern points can be found. The southern points still work.

Information provided by WoSAS (2013), compiled 11/01/2006 (WoSAS Pin 53090)

NS36NW 78.01 NT 31324 67565 Engine Shed

Built by Sir James Lithgow to transport shooting parties to the grouse moors. It was constructed in 1922 using men from his own shipyards and material from scrapped warships and former collieries. The system of lines, 2ft gauge, extended across a wide area from Laverock Stone (NS 30179 69707) to Knockdal Ring (NS 27351 67869), Hyndal Hill (NS 28380 66707) and Smeath Hill (NS 31273 65863). Two petrol driven 20 hp locomotives were purchased, possibly from the ordnance factory at Gretna, to transport the shooting parties. The engines and rolling stock were kept by Hardridge Farm (see NS36NW 78.01).

Some of the track by Knockdal Ring may still be in situ, but that to the N of Hardridge has been removed although the track bed, point levers and bridges still survive.

Information from M Briscoe and RCAHMS (AKK) 17 June 2013.