Udny Station is a small village in Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 which is 5 miles east of Oldmeldrum

Oldmeldrum

Oldmeldrum is a village and parish in the Formartine area of Aberdeenshire, not far from Inverurie in North East Scotland. With a growing population of over 2000, Oldmeldrum falls within Scotland's top 300 centres of population. The A947 road from Aberdeen to Banff runs through the centre of the...

 and 5 miles south west of Ellon

Ellon, Aberdeenshire

Ellon is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, approximately north of Aberdeen, lying on the River Ythan which has one of the few undeveloped river estuaries on the Eastern coast of Scotland. It is in the ancient region of Formartine...

. It is part of the parish of Udny, along with another small settlement, Udny Green

Udny Green

Udny Green is a hamlet in Aberdeenshire, Scotland which is immediately southwest of Pitmedden. It is part of the parish of Udny along with another small settlement, Udny Station.-Footnotes:...

.

Udny Station was a station on the Formartine and Buchan line

Formartine and Buchan Railway

The Formartine and Buchan Railway was a railway in the north east of Scotland. It was built to link Fraserburgh and Peterhead with Aberdeen. It had a junction with the main line of the Great North of Scotland Railway at Dyce.-History:...

 to Fraserburgh

Fraserburgh

Fraserburgh is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland with a population recorded in the 2001 Census at 12,454 and estimated at 12,630 in 2006. It lies at the extreme northeast corner of Aberdeenshire, around north of Aberdeen, and north of Peterhead...

. The tracks were removed in the early 80s, just as the oil boom was getting into full swing.

There was a goods yard with railway sidings at the station. The sidings were in the area where a number of newer houses have been built. Walking along the track of the old platform, one of the original lighting units (minus the glass) is still visible mounted on a concrete post. About a mile south of the station, on the old track, walkers pass old level crossing

Level crossing

A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...

 gates which are still fitted showing the orange round plate.

Udny Station has a number of little known features, these are :-

On the eastern edge of the village, whilst heading for Cultercullen, just as you leave the village is a field with a fenced off area showing air vents. This was a Royal Observer Corps

Royal Observer Corps

The Royal Observer Corps was a civil defence organisation operating in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down....

 station. Through an access hatch, there are rooms under here used during the Cold War by the ROC. There are a number of these stations spread across the country, most were taken out of service in 2001. The rooms house some communications equipment, however the Udny Station one has been almost stripped of everything inside.

At the railway bridge beside Tillycorthie house, heading for Aberdeen you go round some tight turns. As you take a sharp right after the railway bridge, there is a small triangle area of trees with a duck pond. This duck pond is a bomb crater from a German aircraft in WW2. Further up the hill a 2nd bomb exploded, and further up from there a 3rd bomb didn't explode. This UXB was recovered and made safe in WW2.

A number of the farms in the area used prisoners of war as labour, these were supplied from the POW camp in Pitmedden. The camp entrance gate is still visible from the Pitmedden

Pitmedden

Pitmedden is a rural village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, situated midway between Ellon and Oldmeldrum, and approximately distant from Aberdeen. In addition to local shops, primary school, church, village hall and parks, the village is home to the National Trust for Scotland's Pitmedden Garden and...

 to Old Meldrum road, just as you're leaving Pitmedden - a black metal gate on the right with barbed wire on it.

Footnotes