Month: July 2026

Arisaig 2026 24: Homeward Bound – Glasgow to York

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with another segment of the return journey, ending on a bit of a cliff hanger. There are plenty of photographs.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my Scottish holiday (May 30th to June 6th). We continue with the homeward journey.

THE VAGARIES OF BRITISH TRAINS

To set the stage for the rest of this series I need to explain a bit about the intermediate stages of my return journey. For reasons that I did not originally understand but became apparent during the journey I was booked on three different services for various stages of the journey from Edinburgh to Peterborough:

  1. Edinburgh to York (this service was running non-stop from York to King’s Cross)
  2. York to Grantham (Grantham was the only the intermediate stop between York and King’s Cross on this service)
  3. Grantham to Peterborough

The above while a little annoying should not have caused any problems…

BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE & MEN GANG AFT AGLEY

We were not vouchsafed platform information regarding the train from Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley until five minutes before departure time, which meant a bit of haste was required to make sure of boarding it. However it arrived in Edinburgh with plenty of time for me to make the interchange to the first of the trains on which I had a seat in which I had to sit for my ticket to be valid. At that point I was pleased with how the journey was going rather than the reverse. However we had a long slow haul caused by trespassers on the track, and the necessity for the driver to go slow so as to avoid hitting them, and by the time we were approaching York making the connection to the my next train was looking decidedly dicey…

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the pictures I took between Glasgow and York…

Leaving Scotland – this is the River Tweed.

Arisaig 2026 23: Homeward Bound – Bridge of Orchy to Glasgow

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with another segment of the return journey.

Welcome to the antepenultimate instalment in my series about my holiday in Scotland.

A TRANSITION POINT

My previous post took us as far as Bridge of Orchy. Two stops after Bridge of Orchy we got to Crianlarich, the point at which the train from Oban joined ours for the run on to Glasgow. It is also a transition point in another way – after Crianlarich photo worthy sights get rarer. For this, and one other reason the remaining posts in this series cover much greater distances than has been the case with the first few dealing with this return journey.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs for this section of the journey…

Arisaig 2026 22: Homeward Bound – Corrour to Bridge of Orchy

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with the next segment of my return journey

Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my Scottish holiday.

ACROSS THE MOOR

This section of the journey initially featured the expanse of Rannoch Moor, and then featured some other fine Scottish scenery. The journey continued to progress smoothly with the only stops being at stations (it is only beyond Crianlarich, where the train from Oban would join this one, that this service does not stop at every station).

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs for this part of the journey…

Arisaig 2026 21: Homeward Bound – Neptune’s Staircase to Corrour

Continuing my account of my Scottish holiday with the next segment of the return journey.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my holiday in Scotland (May 30th to June 6th).

TOWARDS THE MOORLAND

As mentioned in the previous post Neptune’s Staircase is close to Banavie station. After Banavie the next station, and the only major one we passed during the period covered by this post was Fort William. We had a short wait at Fort William before moving on. Corrour is a very remote station, in the wilds of Rannoch Moor.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs that relate to this section of the route…

I have travelled on previous incarnations of this sleeper service, the first time as long ago as 1993.
I was not able to get the station sign at Corrour, but this platform direction sign makes it clear which station it is – it being the one whose name is missing.

Arisaig 2026 20: Homeward Bound – Glenfinnan Viaduct to Neptune’s Staircase

Continuing my account of my homeward journey from my Scottish holiday, taking things as far as Neptune’s Staircase.

Welcome to the latest instalment in my series about my return journey. I covered as far as Glenfinnan Viaduct last time.

EXPLANATION

I took many photos on this journey, which has led me to break it into multiple posts, using either landmarks or stations as appropriate as dividers. This post is still exclusively related to the Arisaig to Glasgow leg of the journey, with Neptune’s Staircase being an arrangement of locks not far from Banavie Station, which is the last station stop before Fort William if travelling east. The journey continued to run smoothly between these points.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are the photographs that relate to this post…

Neptune’s Staircase
The Neptune’s Staircase signboard