Altnabreac Station 1X1 ride with Brian - November 30 2014

Here's a few pics from a ride I did today with Brian (epicyclo). It was up my neck of the woods (sorta) and was basically a loop out to Altnabreac station out in the Flow country, which is supposedly one of the remotest or isolated stations in the UK. This is because there are no proper roads to or from the station. It was drop off point for the hunting estate back early last century. It was a very laid back ride, chatting, eating snickers and having fun on the 1X1.
It was a great ride really for a wet, cold, windy day. Getting respite from the windy open flow country by cutting through the patches of forestry sections. It is very open and exposed with the weather pretty changeable. Its also a very long way from anywhere
I was out there last Sunday on the Pugsley around Loch More and thought it would be a nice ride to do the loop from where the very thin strip of tarmac ends near Strathmore lodge, head west to the railway on the forestry/estate roads and the head to Altnabreac station then around to Dalnawillan Lodge then come back to the northern shore of Loch More from the south.
Dalnawillan lodge is the abandoned one not the new looking one with the wind turbines. There are only a couple of houses left on the estate and at the station the old station house is privately owned, with there now being the shed in the pictures with where to wait for a train. This station and the one before, Scotsdale are only stopped at with prior arrangement due to nobody really using them besides the estate workers families and the odd tourist, usually bike riders who get off here and then ride to Thurso, Wick or John O'Groats. Scotrail has copped a lot of grief lately up here because even with prior notification the train has 'forgotten' to stop and let the estate workers children off when coming home for school holidays, resulting in a very long taxi ride to the end of the tarmac from Thurso. I had just explained this to Brian when all of a sudden a train came round the bend and slowed right down and the lady driving asked if we needed a lift, we declined, thanked her and she put her foot down and off she went. That lady knows a couple of cool singlespeeders when she see's them

I had the slim idea of scoping it out for a gravel dash type event, something that Brian thought was a good idea. The problem being getting people to come this far north. Maybe a fatbike snow dash for January or there's a longer loop out towards Forsinard that could be a retro ride in the spring as its decent track?


The station only has a dirt track leading to it with the nearest road 6 1/2 miles to the east. It was really just a drop off and pick up station for the hunting and fishing estate of Dalnawillan lodge back near the turn of the last century. There is still the water tower for refilling the steam trains on the other side of the platform.