4th Duke of Portland Past Legacies Exhibition at Troon Library

Discover how the streets of Troon got their names, the history of the harbour, Fullarton House and The Kilmarnock and Troon Railway in this fantastic photographic exhibition on display from the 4th – 31st of July. Entry is free. Troon Library, 5 South Beach, Troon KA10 6EF Open: Mon & Thurs: 9am – 7pm, Tue, […]

Troon’s icon of industry: the first railway locomotive in Scotland

This is the third (and final) post to be themed around the Kilmarnock & Troon Railway, completed in 1812. Not the least of its claims to fame is that it carried the first railway locomotive to be seen in Scotland, ordered from George Stephenson by the 4th Duke of Portland and brought to Kilmarnock by […]

On the track of a pioneer railway builder: Thomas Hollis, civil engineer

A previous post told of Scotland’s first passenger rail service on the Kilmarnock & Troon Railway. In July this year, to commemorate the bicentenary of this pioneering railway’s completion, a new plaque was unveiled for Laigh Milton Viaduct – the world’s oldest surviving public railway viaduct. The plaque commemorates the great Devonshire civil engineer William […]

The Caledonia and the iron road to the seaside in 1812: Scotland’s first passenger rail service

On 6th July 1812 the Kilmarnock & Troon Railway, built by the 4th Duke of Portland to transport coal to Troon harbour by horse-drawn wagons, went into full operation. Until this time, Troon had been an out-of-the-way undeveloped anchorage with nothing but a few fishermen’s cottages – a haunt of smugglers. It was thanks to […]