Aboyne Curling Pond railway station, Loch of Aboyne Platform or Curlers' Platform was a private station opened on the Deeside Extension Railway for the use of the curlers, who played on the nearby

Loch of Aboyne Loch of Aboyne is a shallow, artificial formed, freshwater loch in Grampian, Scotland. It lies northeast of Aboyne and west-southwest of Aberdeen. An earthen dam was constructed around 1834 to retain the loch. It also served as a reservoir for ...

close to the old

Deeside Railway The Deeside Railway was a passenger and goods railway between Aberdeen and Ballater in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Opening in 1853 to Banchory, an extension reached Aboyne in 1859. A separate company, the Aboyne & Braemar Railway, built an extens ...

that ran from Aberdeen (Joint) to Ballater.

History

The station was opened by 1891 on the Deeside Extension Railway that became part of the GNoSR and at grouping merged with the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

. It was closed to curlers prior to 1925. The line itself has been lifted and this section forms part of the

Deeside Way The Deeside Way is a rail trail that follows, in part, the bed of the former Deeside Railway in Aberdeenshire. Forming part of the National Cycle Network (National Route 195) the trail leads from Aberdeen to Ballater. The route The pathway r ...

long-distance footpath. Aboyne was not unique in having a dedicated private curlers' railway station as at least one other existed at Loch Parks, named Drummuir Curlers' Platform on the

Keith and Dufftown Railway The Keith and Dufftown Railway ("The Whisky Line") is a heritage railway in Scotland, running for from , Keith (Ordnance Survey grid reference ) to () via () and Auchindachy. Originally the former Great North of Scotland Railway's Kei ...

. Loch Leven station was frequently used for curling matches.

Aboyne Curling Club

The loch is artificial, created by the Aboyne Castle estate. On 9 February 1891 he Aberdeen Free Press advertised a special train from Aberdeen along the Deeside line to the

Platform for a

bonspiel A bonspiel is a curling tournament, consisting of several games, often held on a weekend. Until the 20th century most bonspiels were held outdoors, on a frozen freshwater loch. Today almost all bonspiels are held indoors on specially prepared ar ...

on the 10 February between curlers from the south and north of the River Don.Curling History
/ref> In 1908 the club is recorded as meeting annually at the Loch of Aboyne and that the loch was used for curling from at least 1870. The club was active in 1915, the year when it is recorded to have organised a concert to raise money for the war effort. The club no longer exists. The site was also known as St Katherine's Loch.

Infrastructure

The 1899

OS map , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

shows the single short station platform that was located on the northern or loch side of this single track section of the branch not far from Rosepark Cottage. The platform was made of railway timbers as was the substantial revetment behind. A path led to the eastern end of the platform and a pedestrian crossing was present that also gave direct access to the loch.Aberdeenshire LXXXII.14 (Aboyne and Glen Tanar; Birse) Publication date: 1900 Revised: 1899
/ref> No indication of the halt is indicated on OS maps in 1929.Title: Sheet 44 - Ballater & Strathdon Publication date: 1929
/ref>

Services

Apart from advertised events the station was not listed on timetables and the sport had a very seasonal and unpredictable requirement for train services.

The site today

The foundations of the platform survive. The

Royal Deeside Railway The Royal Deeside Railway is a Scottish heritage railway located at Milton of Crathes railway station on a part of the original Deeside Railway. Original Railway Originally constructed between 1853 and 1866, the Deeside Railway ran between ...

is located at

Milton of Crathes Milton of Crathes is a complex of restored 17th-century stone buildings,United Kingdom Ordnance Survey Map Landranger 45, Stonehaven and Banchory, 1:50,000 scale, 2004 associated with, and previously an outlier of, Crathes Castle in Aberdeenshire, ...

some distance down the line towards

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

References

Sources

* * Maxtone, Graham and Cooper, Mike (2018). ''Then and Now on the Great North. V.1.'' GNoSR Association. .

External links

Aboyne Curlers' PlatformFilm of the station's site and the Deeside line
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aboyne Curling Pond Railway Station Disused railway stations in Aberdeenshire Former Great North of Scotland Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1891 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1925 Former private railway stations