Old Photograph Slate Quarry Railway Station Ballachulish Scotland

Old photograph of the Slate Quarry Railway Station in Ballachulish, Lochaber, Scotland. This was an old quarry village. The name Ballachulish, from Scottish Gaelic, Baile a' Chaolais, means the Village by the Narrows. The narrows in question is Caolas Mhic Phàdraig, Peter or Patrick's son's narrows, at the mouth of Loch Leven. As there was no road to the head of Loch Leven until 1927, the Ballachulish Ferry, established in 1733, and those at Invercoe, Callert and Caolas na Con were essential. The Ballachulish ferry closed in December 1975 when the Ballachulish Bridge finally opened. In 1903, a branch of the, now closed, Callander and Oban Railway, from Connel Ferry, was opened to Ballachulish. Slate from local quarries, established just two years after the infamous Glencoe Massacre of 1692, was used to provide the roofing slate for much of Edinburgh and Glasgow's skyline in the succeeding centuries. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



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