Introduction
It's been a long time since government advice and my life have allowed me to do a Least Used Stations visit for this blog. However, the end of lockdown #2 was a point where I could go and visit places. I could not decide what station I should visit, but luckily that decision was mostly made for me by the government and their tier systems. I live in a tier 2 area, and we are advised against travelling to anywhere in tier 3 save for “essential journies”. This blog is (sadly) not one. I was further constrained by the whole of Scotland and Wales being out of bounds, and by where I could travel to and from in a day from my corner of South East England. Shippea Hill became about the only station I could visit.

Shippea Hill was the least used station in the country for 2 years from 2014, with only 1 passenger recorder per month. That meant it gained notoriety, and patronage ballooned (relatively) to over 400 in the 2018/19 period. That dropped back to 164 for the most recent 2019/20 statistics. The station serves the massive hill that exists in the Cambridgeshire Fens, as well as some farms and a load of shipping containers. The station is located east of Ely on the Breckland Line that links Norwich with Ely. It gets only 1 eastbound train per day (Monday-Saturday) and 1 westbound train per week (Saturday). It would not be desirable to wait between trains on a Saturday, because the first train calls at just after 7am, and the second at quarter past 4 in the afternoon. I decided to get a train to Ely, walk the 8 or so miles to Shippea Hill, then catch the afternoon train back. I think most rail enthusiasts who properly visit the train do so by getting a taxi from Ely or Littleport, but I consider getting a cab cheating.

The Journey and Walk
I woke up at a time, and got myself to London Kings Cross in time for the 10:42 Cambridge Flyer (a service that runs non-stop from London to Cambridge). I got that as far as Cambridge, where I picked up some lunch. Having inhaled that on the platform, I got the next service up to Ely. There, I left the station, and consulted the map I had.

As is normal for England in December, it was raining. My route followed the Hereward Way which is a relatively well established path. I must have looked a little silly trying to find the path as I spent a while alternating between doubling back along roads and dropping my phone. I found the path, and wandered along it to a level crossing. That took me round the back of an industrial estate, over a Bridge, and past a very imposing fence which told me that a security company constantly patrolled. I couldn't see anyone. I arrived at a bridge to see some people diving off it. I'm sure the Great Ouse is a lovely river to dive into, even when it is brown, the sky is grey, and one can already get wet simply by standing on the porch. I managed to take my second wrong-turn of the day, and had a lovely detour to Queen Adelaide. All I can say is that it exists. Back on the path I was expecting, I followed that until I reached the backstreets of Prickwillow. There were a number of trees around, but I could see neither the willow nor the prick veriaty. This did distract me enough to make detour number 3 and a 5 minute period where I walked back towards Ely along B-road. I followed some river for a bit, and then some roads/tracks. Just over 3 hours later I arrived, damp, on the approach to the station.

Shippea Hill
The station is a fairly simple and standard one. It has 2 platforms situated next to a level crossing with a signal box that is now disused. There is a shelter on the Norwich-bound platform, a diminished number of signs in comparison to most other stations I have visited for the series, some lights, some benches, but no bins. There is a mobility ramp on the Norwich-bound platform, but none on the Ely-bound platform. This makes sense, as nobody leaving Shippea Hill who wants to go west or south has a physical disability.

Surrounding the station, there is a rather optimistically placed pub: the Railway Tavern. Until I looked at the map post-journey, I thought this was just a house with a silly name. There is also a very heavily secured set of shipping containers. They may well be the namesake of the 'shippea' park of the station name, given the severe lack of anything else ship related in the vicinity. On the subject of the name, there is no hill. The highest point around is the railway and the station.

Otherwise, the station is surrounded by fields. It used to be quite a convenient station for nearby American and British Air Force bases (Mildenhall and possible Lakenheath), but they no longer rely on the railway. Lakenheath has its own station anyway. The very limited service won't help either.

The light closed very rapidly, so it went from grey but bright to dark in the hour I was at the station. My train to Ely arrived slightly late. It was not the 8 coaches that was advertised, it was the normal 4 coaches. This was fine. The journey home was busier than I expected, but uneventful.

Notes
Please be aware that my comments about the etymolgy of the name of this station are knowingly and deliberately silly. Please do not write in.

Yes, I am publishing this two months late. I hadn't planned to publish my trip to Corrour on this blog, but I might as well given that visiting tiny stations in the middle of nowhere is not an essential journey.
Although Corrour is the highest in the country and very remote, it is actually one of the most used on the West Highland Line. Over 14,000 passengers used the station last year. However, there is significant seasonal variation. During Winter, the youth hostel is only open for half the week, and the hotel/restaurant is closed from October to late March.

The Journey
In early March, I was aching to get out of the city (a feeling that was about to get very familiar). I decided to buy some super off-peak smartcard tickets to get as far into the wilderness as possible for the day. Corrour worked. I started relatively late, connecting to a 12:24 from Glasgow to the West Highland Line. The journey takes almost exactly 3 hours from Glasgow to Corrour, although my train was a bit late because of reasons. The West Highland Line is known for being one of the most scenic in the world. I've had many a trip along the line recently, but never in the snow, and, especially as one gets higher into the Rannoch Moor, the snow cover got more convincing (although it was still a speckled coverage).

Corrour Station
I was the only person to get off at Corrour, which was expected. Although the station has 2 platforms (a single island platform), the 2nd platform is barely used. The footbridge has been removed, so passengers have to use a barrow crossing to get from the platform to the rest of the world. There is a small wooden shelter on the platform, along with an indicator, flower boxes, benches, and a lot of signs.  The speckly snow coverage was a lot thicker than it looked from the train.

I decided to take a walk to Loch Ossian. From the station, the closest part of the Loch is about 2 miles east.  The Loch itself is over 3 miles long. I decided not to risk the circular walk round (time constraints). Instead, I settled about 1/3rd of the way down the loch to enjoy the scenery and eat some food. Although the lane is relatively well cleared from snow, the footpath that goes round the south side of the loch wasn't. The snow was slightly more than ankle deep, and I suddenly discovered that my shoes weren't quite as waterproof as they once were. Nevertheless, the views were stunning.

Back at Corrour, I still had an hour before my train home, so I decided to have a look at the Corrour Summit, a little north of the station. Although Corrour station is the highest in the UK, the summit here is not the highest in the UK: that record is for the Drumochter summit on the Highland Main Line.

I now had about 30 minutes before my train. I decided to sit in the waiting room where I squeezed out my socks (literally - I have a video). That didn't really help because my shoes were also soaking. The night closed in before my train arrived to take me back home.

Notes
Corrour is absolutely bats, but I love it when there isn't anyone around.