The Whitrope Tunnel is a disused railway tunnel in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

, situated south of

Hawick Hawick ( ; sco, Haaick; gd, Hamhaig) is a town in the Scottish Borders council area and historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east of Selkirk. It is one of ...

on the

Waverley Route The Waverley Route was a railway line that ran south from Edinburgh, through Midlothian and the Scottish Borders, to Carlisle. The line was built by the North British Railway; the stretch from Edinburgh to Hawick opened in 1849 and the remaind ...

, close to

Whitrope Whitrope is a densely forested, but sparsely populated area, high in the Southern Upland hills in the south central Scottish Borders in the former county of Roxburghshire. Situated some 12 miles south from Hawick on the B6399 road, the Scottis ...

. It has a length of . It is the fourth longest tunnel in

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 ...

. The tunnel is on the Hawick to

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

part of the former line, opened in the 1860s by the

North British Railway The North British Railway was a British railway company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, and from the outset the company followe ...

. The Tunnel was closed in 1969 (as with the Waverley Route itself) by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

. The

Waverley Route Heritage Association Waverley Route Heritage Association is a heritage railway group involved with the history, heritage and preservation of the Waverley Route, based/centred on Whitrope, south of Hawick, Scotland. Current projects include the restoration of the 1 ...

is currently aiming to restore the tunnel to former standards and use. The tunnel is a Category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and forms a key part of the former route. In March 2002 there was a partial collapse of the tunnel roof at the south portal, followed by a major collapse in March 2021. Although it is repairable, there is no source of funding and consequently the tunnel has been sealed off for public safety.

References

External links

News footage of the reopening of Whitrope tunnel, 19 April 2006

Video footage of the tunnel approach and Whitrope Siding station
Railway tunnels in Scotland Category B listed buildings in the Scottish Borders Tunnels in the Scottish Borders Listed tunnels in Scotland 1860s establishments in Scotland 1969 disestablishments {{Scotland-rail-transport-stub

See also

References

External links