The Old Deeside Railway part 3

---

This railway gradually edged its way from Aberdeen up Deeside towards Balmoral, after Queen Victoria took ownership of the castle there in the mid 19th Century. It eventually stopped at Ballater. Since being classified as uneconomic by Beeching in 1964, and thereafter dismantled, bits and pieces were sold off to adjacent landowners. On safety grounds many bridges and viaducts were destroyed. These events have effectively scuppered initiatives to make the route into a long distance path, but sections closer to Aberdeen have become designated the Deeside Way, whilst other short sections are paths or cycle tracks or bridleways. This article, illustrated by photos from the GEOGRAPH archive, is meant to be a useful substitute for a de facto full length Deeside Way. It may also be a means of highlighting lacunae in present day photographic coverage, and encourage those gaps to be filled.

Aboyne to Ballater - opened 1866

"The first turf of the extension from Aboyne to Ballater was cut at Ballater on 7th September 1865 by Mrs Farquharson of Invercauld, and the line opened to traffic on 17th October 1866.
[It was at one time proposed to extend the railway to Braemar, and a tramway was actually made from Ballater to Bridge of Gairn but was taken up]" A.I.McConnochie - Deeside (1895).

NO5398 Aboyne:


NO5298 Aboyne:


NO5198 Barclay Park:


NO5098 Aboyne-Dinnet:


NO4998 Dinnet Gliding Club:


NO4898 Ferrar:


NO4799NO4798 Boghead:


NO4699 Dinnet Burn:


NO4698 Dinnet:


NO4598 Dinnet:


NO4497NO4498 Muir of Dinnet:


NO4397 The Haugh


NO4297 Cambus O'May station:




NO4197 Cutaway Cottage:



NO4198 Cambus O'May:


NO4097 Sawmill:


NO4098 Turnerhall



NO3997 Newton of Tullich:



NO3897 Milton of Tullich:



NO3796 Monaltrie:


NO3695 Ballater Station:

---