In the 1890s, the people of north-west Scotland grew tired of Government
Commissions sent to consider a railway to Ullapool. Despite rock-solid
arguments in favour of such a railway, neither government nor the big
railway companies lifted a finger to build one. Against the
recommendations of its own advisers, the Scottish Office dismissed the
project as 'a quite impossible proposal'. In 1918, history repeated
itself with another Commission and another failure to build the railway.
'Drivel' is how one local man described the official government inquiry
reports. Few disagreed.
This book tells the whole sorry tale of the attempt to improve
transportation in the north-west Highlands and the resulting government
inquiries, set against the region's economic and social problems and
civil unrest in the crofting communities. Stories, facts and figures
have been unearthed from the archives of government departments and
railway companies, from local people's letters and petitions, from
contemporary newspapers and from the plans prepared for the hoped-for
railways. Other unbuilt railways to the north-west coast are also
described.
But this story is not just about planned railways that were never built.
It is about the frustrations of the people of the Highlands in the face
of government incompetence, railway-company obstructionism, local
rivalries and the struggle against the historical injustice of
land-ownership.
