Glen Ogle Viaducts
Built for the single track railway which here ran on a ledge on the side of the mountain, they are a stark reminder of the effort required to build a railway in such inhospitable country. They are listed Grade B.
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Glen Ogle was a drove road and the route of one of General Wade's military roads, the remains of which are still discernible. The Callander & Oban Railway company was formed in 1864 with the objective of linking Callander, Scotland to the west coast port of Oban over challenging terrain, particularly at Glen Ogle. Callander had been reached in 1858 by the Dunblane, Doune & Callander Railway which was absorbed into the Scottish Central Railway and then the Caledonian.
Construction began in 1866, and the single track line reached Killin in 1870. This entailed a line up Glen Ogle cut into a ledge of the hillside on the steep southern slopes of the long deep glen. At one stage it was necessary to construct two viaducts, the first of only three arches, the second of twelve. They are in rock-faced stone.
In 1865 a land-slip closed the line in Glen Ogle and it was decided not to re-open it, especially because it was still possible for the railway to serve Oban by using the alternative of the West Highland line as far as Crianlarich.
The viaducts were undamaged and remain, poised high up on the mountainside, a dramatic relic and now part of a walking trail.
Photo credit: Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
By road and on foot: From the former Lochearnhead station building which has been restored and converted into an outdoor activity centre for Scouts, a path climbs up the hillside to the railway line perched about 100 m. up from the valley. A yellow arrow on a post marks the start of the trackbed section of the walk. It climbs steadily with a nice even gradient up through the trees that now surround the line. Two miles later the spectacular Glen Ogle viaducts are reached which offer a good viewpoint.
Alternatively there is a good view of the viaducts in the distance from the comfort of a car on the A85.
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