Argyll’s Ardkinglas Railway

Another corner of Argyll’s complex heritage involves the lost railway at Ardkinglas, Cairndow at the western head of the Cowal peninsula.

This was a narrow gauge estate railway built to serve the Ardkinglas Estate on the shores of Loch Fyne, the longest sea loch in the UK, all but severing Argyll. The railway ran along the shore of the loch from a boat house at Caspian.

It was built as a transportation system for the estate and as a garden toy for the estate’s 17th Laird, George Livingston-Campbell-Callander. It was operated by a single steam locomotive with rolling stock consisting of an open passenger carriage and several wagons.

The railway was dismantled around 1900 and the equipment sold. The boiler from the locomotive was still in situ on the beach at Tayvallich on Loch Sween until the early 1950s.

The Campbeltown and Machrihanish LIght Railway by Nigel MacMillan, pubished in 1970 by David and Charles is a useful source on this and other of Argyll’s past railways.