In This Section
Travelling in Time - An Important Staging Post
It wasn’t just the Spa that brought fame and good fortune to Moffat but also her location. With improvements in trading conditions, fast communications were vital between Scotland and England and Moffat was ideally placed to become an important staging post for passenger and mail coaches and all manner of merchant’s carts.
Much of the coach trade ceased when the main rail line between Carlisle and Glasgow opened in 1848. However visitors still had to travel by coach into Moffat until 1883 when a single-track branch line was introduced between the town and the main line at Beattock. In the 1890’s there were twelve trains a day, fifteen on busy summer days, and even a through train, ‘The Tinto Express’, that ran to Glasgow every morning, returning late afternoon.
Arriving Today
Today most visitors to Moffat arrive by car or bus, hopefully having enjoyed a smooth ride over well made ‘tarmacadam’ roads.
...thanks in part to John Loudon Macadam of road-surfacing fame who is buried in Moffat’s old cemetery.
