The Whitrope Tunnel is a disused railway tunnel in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

, situated south of

Hawick Hawick ( ; ; ) is a town in the Scottish Borders council areas of Scotland, council area and counties of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east o ...

on the

Waverley Route The Waverley Route was a railway line that ran south from Edinburgh, through Midlothian and the Scottish Borders, to Carlisle. The line was built by the North British Railway; the stretch from Edinburgh to Hawick opened in 1849 and the remaind ...

, close to Whitrope. It has a length of . It is the fourth longest tunnel in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The tunnel is on the Hawick to

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

part of the former line, opened in the 1860s by the

North British Railway The North British Railway was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, ...

. The Tunnel was closed in 1969 (as with the Waverley Route itself) by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

. The Waverley Route Heritage Association is currently aiming to restore the tunnel to former standards and use. The tunnel is a Category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and forms a key part of the former route. In March 2002 there was a partial collapse of the tunnel roof at the south portal, followed by a major collapse in March 2021. Although it is repairable, there is no source of funding and consequently the tunnel has been sealed off for public safety.

References

External links

News footage of the reopening of Whitrope tunnel, 19 April 2006

Video footage of the tunnel approach and Whitrope Siding station
Railway tunnels in Scotland Category B listed buildings in the Scottish Borders Tunnels in the Scottish Borders Listed tunnels in Scotland 1860s establishments in Scotland 1969 disestablishments {{Scotland-rail-transport-stub

See also

References

External links