Killochan railway station was located in a rural part of

South Ayrshire South Ayrshire ( sco, Sooth Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir a Deas, ) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland, covering the southern part of Ayrshire. It borders onto Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire. On 30 June 2 ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and mainly served the nearby

Killochan Castle Killochan Castle is a 16th-century L-plan tower house about north east of Girvan, South Ayrshire, Scotland, north of the Water of Girvan, and south of Burnhead.Coventry, Martin (2001). ''The Castles of Scotland''. Musselburgh: Goblinshead. p. 223 ...

estate. The Killochan bank is the name given to this section of the line, running from

Girvan Girvan ( gd, Inbhir Gharbhain, "mouth of the River Girvan") is a burgh and harbour town in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Girvan is situated on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde, with a population of about 6,450. It lies south of Ayr, ...

on an uphill gradient to just north of the old station site.

Maybole Maybole is a town and former burgh of barony and police burgh in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It had an estimated population of in . It is situated south of Ayr and southwest of Glasgow by the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The town is bypass ...

is around nine miles away and

two miles.

History

Opened to serve the

estate and surrounding population in 1860Butt (1995) page 132 by the

Maybole and Girvan Railway The Maybole and Girvan Junction Railway was a railway company that constructed a line between Maybole and Girvan. Although promoted independently, it was supported by the Glasgow and South Western Railway, and was seen as part of a trunk line con ...

it closed in 1951. before the era of the Beeching cuts. Killochan Colliery (aka Bargany Pit), Craigie No. 1 Section, Parish of

Dailly Dailly ( gd, Dail Mhaol Chiarain) is a village in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located on the Water of Girvan, south of Maybole, and east of Old Dailly. "New Dailly", as it was originally known, was laid out in the 1760s as a coal-mining vil ...

was still working up until the 1970s and had a coal washing plant that was used to treat coal from the other pits in the valley. A station solely for the use of miners was located at Bargany, known as Bargany Colliery Platform, opened at an unrecorded date and closed in July 1926.

Grangeston Halt railway station The Grangeston Halt railway station was a private station that was not listed in the public timetables, located in a rural part of South Ayrshire, Scotland and served the WWII Grangeston ICI munitions plant bringing workers to the site. Grant's ...

was located nearby as a private facility used by staff from the ICI munitions plant at Grangeston during WWII and closed in 1965.

Station infrastructure

It was originally on a single track section that was later doubled and had two platforms with a signal box, goods yards with a loading dock and a goods shed. The dwelling house was a two-storeyed English Arts and Crafts structure with a very attractive single-storeyed glass conservatory-like waiting rooms section. Like

Cassillis railway station Cassillis railway station was a train station, railway station serving the village of Minishant, South Ayrshire, Scotland. The station was originally part of the Ayr and Maybole Junction Railway (and later the Glasgow and South Western Railway). ...

that also served a castle and country estate, the main building was rebuilt circa 1900. A quarry once lay nearby and a narrow gauge railway crossed the line bringing stone into the Killochan goods yard for loading into standard gauge goods trucks. In 1965 the signal box was still present as was the second platform and the old toilet block. A 1970 photograph shows the station substantially intact despite closure in 1951 although only a single platform remains. By 2011 the station buildings had been much altered with the signal box gone, toilet block demolished, waiting room converted into a garage and the substantial chimneys removed from the two storey station house.

Micro-history

is one of the finest fortified houses in the South of Scotland and was held by the

Cathcart Cathcart ( sco, Kithcart, gd, Coille Chart)
is an are ...

family from around 1586 until 1954. In Victorian times it was a busy and populated estate and provided significant freight and passenger traffic for this rural station.

References

Notes

Sources

* Butt, R. V. J. (1995). ''The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present'' (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. . * Coia, Paul (2012). ''AyrLine. Driver's eye view. Stranraer to Glasgow''. Video125. DVD. * * * Tranter, Nigel (1977). ''The Fortified House in Scotland. South-West Scotland.'' Edinburgh : James Thin * Wham, Alasdair (2013). ''Ayrshire's Forgotten Railways. A Walker's Guide.'' Usk : Oakwood Press. .

External links

Video footage of Killochan Station

{{Carrick Disused railway stations in South Ayrshire Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1860 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1951 Former Glasgow and South Western Railway stations