Rudy's Railway Walks

A walk along Monifieth Beach to Broughty Ferry. With a fair number of rest stops to hide from the hot June sunshine!

f we'd had all the time in the world at Scotscalder we would have loved to walk the couple of miles to the nearby tiny hamlet of Dorrery. Trains are scarce when you're this far from big towns though and we only managed the first few hundred yards dow

Altnabreac is extremely remote. There are long, 10+ mile hill walking routes theoretically accessible from the station but the current owners of the station cottage have peculiar ideas about access. They say they welcome passengers using the correct

We had the choice between a short visit or more than three hours at Kinbrace. With two other station walks to fit in the same day we went for the short option of a wee walk along the road and back. Rudy still managed to make a friend, very quiet thou

Forsinard station is in the heart of the Flow Country. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since July 2024 described as "the most expansive and best example of blanket bog in the world" and "a rolling, rugged expanse of precious peatland and mountain scener

A quick decision as the rain came on at John o' Groats had us jumping on an earlier bus than planned. That turned our two hour connection into a three hour wait! Both of us were fairly tired and the wind was bitter so we headed for a wee bit of a s

The Gearrchoille Woodland was gifted to Ardgay in 2002 but has a longer history of community use than that. The old curling pond for the village was here and in long gone days the woodland meadow was used as an overnight stop for drovers. There's

At Lairg we headed down to the River Shin for a second-breakfast picnic. One of the best "hidden gem" places we've found. A half hidden signpost and gate from platform 1 of the train station leads directly into the woods and onwards via deserted path

We spent the night in Alness which gave us plenty of time to take an evening walk down to the River Averon and see the sluice & fish ladder. It was a lovely evening walk from there to the railway viaduct but if course Rudy's favourite was the open gr

Tornagrain Thousands of new houses are in the process of being built at Tornagrain. It still has a very deserted toy-town feel even on the Sunday afternoon that we visited. The station at Inverness Airport is a new addition to the Invernes

At Kilmarnock we took a quick walk to Kay Park. The park contains the Kilmarnock Burns Monument which was completed for the opening of the park in 1879. The design ea much grander than the original idea due to surplus public subscriptions and the mon

Kilmaurs is a small East Ayrshire town just to the north west of Kilmarnock. It has a signposted "Town Trail" that is much more rural than it's name suggests. So much so that it goes through a cow field or two. For our visit Rudy stuck to a run ar

Invergowrie southbound platform has a gate that opens right into woodland on the Firth of Tay. There's not much here except some reed beds, a couple old boat sheds and plenty peace and quiet to sit and enjoy a picnic looking out across the mud fla

Drem is a very small village in East Lothian with a population of less than 100 in the 2001 Census. It's Wikipedia article currently starts with a photo captioned "Old farm buildings and cottages brought back to life as expensive houses." For me a

Along the road from the station, down a street and behind some houses, Merryton Braes isn't really an "official" place as such. Just an area of woodland stuck on a steep riverbank between houses and the Avon Water that developers can't build & profit

Sometimes walks just don't happen. Revisiting Shettleston I had thought to go back up the hill to Greenfield Park but no. When we stepped off the train there was an alarm sounding in a nearby building, there was construction work going on, and mos

There used to be a branch line from Bellshill to the Bellshill Colliery Pit No 3. Well guess where we went for our walk when visiting the station?! A run around and exploring old overgrown industrial wasteland is always a favourite of ours.

After a run around on Glasgow Green we walked back to Queen Street via a few of the East End's well known landmarks. An empty event notice board and the closed for renovation People's Palace. Lucky Rudy was just here to run around the grass la

Glasgow Green to Dalmarnock Picking up where we left off last time at the Glasgow University Boathouse this section of the River Clyde Walkway meanders through the east of the city but like much of the Clyde it doesn't interact with the urb

When we visited the Cuningar Loop Woodland Park in March 2019 it was so nice I promised myself to come back for another walk around. Six Years Later I'm glad to say it's just as nice. There's a new addition of a viewing platform th