Altnabreac Railway Station

A ScotRail train station in Highland.
✓ Station Visit 269

We're calling this one an awkward station. Our second request stop of the day. Rudy visited Altnabreac on the 5th of June 2025 arriving at 13:34 on a train from Thurso.

158709 at Altnabreac.
Rudy at Altnabreac Station.
Photos from June 2025.
Altnabreac is a request stop on the Far North Line in use since 1874. It's one of the most remote stations in Scotland and one of the least used with just a couple hundred passengers each year. There are no surfaced roads and not even a nearby village, originally it was really just a passing place and watering point for steam locos. It was very beautiful in the sunshine when we visited.

The current owners of the station cottage are not good neighbours to have. They dispute ownership of land beyond their registered title, claiming the railway doesn't own the station and have no right of access to it. Their own videos show them being obstructive and abusive to rail staff, preventing them carrying out even basic maintenance. This meant trains couldn't stop at Altnabreac station for more than a year from November 2023 until spring 2025. During the closure "someone" removed all the station signage. So we brought our own station sign!

Rudy's Adventures at Altnabreac

Altnabreac station walks and places to visit.

Altnabreac railway station () is a rural railway station in the Highland council area of Scotland. It serves the area of Altnabreac – a settlement in which the station itself is the main component – in the historic county of Caithness. The name Altnabreac derives from the Scots Gaelic Allt nam Breac, meaning "the stream of the trout".

The station is on the Far North Line, 133 miles 76 chains (215.6 km) from Inverness, situated between Forsinard and Scotscalder. The station comprises a single platform capable of accommodating a four-carriage train. The station is managed by ScotRail, who operate all trains serving it. Services were suspended on 12 November 2023 due to an access dispute with a neighbouring property but resumed on 6 April 2025.

Wikipedia