• January 2020

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Here’s a slightly different walk to some of our usual hills, glens or coastal walks.   We were off to explore the Glenfarg Tunnels.  Unusual?

This walk might not be for those who are claustrophibic, scared of the dark or dark tunnels or possibly scared of ghosts!

But it is for those that like to get off the beaten path, to enjoy a torch-lit stroll through spooky old tunnels.  I always think its a bit of a novelty doing something unusual and we were also learning about past history at the same time.  This could be quite an eye-opener.

The Glenfarg Line was opened in 1890, with two tunnels, each 500m long, and two viaducts.

These tunnels were in active service as part of the North British Railway line running from the Forth Railway Bridge to Perth up until the 1970s.

Our walk would explore part of this old railway line but in particular the two tunnels. 

We parked the car at the side of the road between Glenfarg and Newbigging, climbed over a gate and we were pretty much on the railway line.

The track is very obvious and after 10 minutes of walking we could see our first tunnel. 

We walked over an impressive stone viaduct which took us over the River Farg and into our first tunnel. 

This tunnel was pretty straight so for the most part you could see a very faint opening at the other side, but it was still very dark and pretty spooky.

We had read that mobile phone torches were not sufficient so we brought our very strong head torches.

At the beginning of the tunnel we passed by a burnt-out car.

The tunnels are lined with concrete, and in parts a patchwork of brick and stone too, pretty impressive when lit up with the torches.

The second tunnel curved substantially and became pitch black in the middle with absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel, it felt very spooky especially when we switched off our torches altogether, but not for too long!

Each tunnel should only take about 10 minutes each for a normal person to walk through, we took longer trying to capture some photos….we are not normal!

This line was actually closed in 1970 to make way for the M90 which is such a shame, as this must have been a beautifully scenic journey from Edinburgh to Perth.

Although the path was muddy and not maintained we still enjoyed this walk and walking through history.