The doyen of great British railway hotels, Gleneagles was created by the Caledonian Railway but opened under LMS ownership on 5 June 1924 at the heart of an 850-acre estate amid rolling Perthshire countryside facing the Ochil Hills.

The Caledonian had renamed nearby Crieff Junction Station as Gleneagles, rebuilding it in 1919, and used sandstone blocks from the demolished Jerviston Viaduct near Wishaw see https://victorianweb.org/technology/railways/139.html in the Hotel’s construction. Railway sleepers were embedded in the floor structure of four corridors. A siding connection handled goods transfer throughout the lifetime of the Crieff branch line, which closed in 1964, and in the wine cellar you can still see a winch once used to unload luggage and freight from railway wagons.

The bandleader Henry Hall performed at the Hotel before the Second World War during which it served as a military hospital. There are three tournament-standard golf courses, and the Hotel was redeveloped for the 40th Ryder Cup in 2014. Significant conferences held here have included the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting of 1977, when an agreement was reached on sporting links with South Africa – see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleneagles_Agreement - and the 31st G8 summit in July 2005. It is a Category B listed building.

Sold out of railway ownership in 1981, Gleneagles has maintained its position among the world’s top hotels and offers guests a playground of country pursuits in addition to golf. In July 2023 a new list from US agency the Robb Report of the fifty most luxurious hotels on Earth had Gleneagles as its only Scottish entry. Today Gleneagles Station is unstaffed but received an award-winning restoration in time for the Ryder Cup. LNER’s Highland Chieftain train and the Caledonian Sleeper provide direct links with London, and more ScotRail trains call than in prepandemic days, with an hourly Glasgow-Dundee service. A permanent exhibition in both waiting rooms tells the history of the surrounding district from Roman times to the present day.