Invergarry & Fort Augustus Railway

The Invergarry and Fort Augustus Railway was a branch-line railway which opened in 1903, connecting Invergarry and Fort Augustus with the main line at Spean Bridge. During this time, a hotel served as a resting place for tiresome travellers and operated as the only licensed hotel in the village. The hotel offered residents free salmon and trout fishing along the banks of Loch Ness. Back then, the hotel was known as the ‘Lovat Arms and Station Hotel’ and is now known as the ‘Lovat Hotel & Restaurant’.

Serving exceptionally sparsely inhabited areas, it was never commercially successful, but it rekindled hostilities between larger railways over a planned railway connection along the Great Glen reaching Inverness. However, this scheme never materialised and in 1933, passenger train operation ceased, and the line closed completely in 1946.

The railway piers are visible from the road bridge across the River Oich, these piers once carried the tracks from Fort Augustus Station to Fort Augustus Pier Station, where passengers would catch a steamboat to Inverness