Footbridge, Aviemore Station

Built in 1892 by the Highland Railway Company and restored in 1997–98 by Law & Dunbar-Nasmith, Aviemore Station comprises a range of buildings on the down platform and a smaller, similar range on the island platform, linked by a footbridge with projecting awnings and a separate canopy range.

The offices and waiting rooms on the down platform form a long single-storey painted weather-boarded range with contrasting painted window reveals and a brick base course. An off-centre square porch with flanking two-sided canted windows projects onto the west approach forecourt and main road. The east elevation is sheltered by a long gabled canopy supported by cast-iron columns with decorative brackets featuring snowflake-detailed spandrels; wooden barge boards with decorative carved valance and gothic traceried painted arch lights illuminate the south gablehead. Large two- and three-light windows appear in both elevations, with three- and six-pane lower lights and multi-pane upper lights. Rubble ridge stacks with ashlar copes support slate roofs.

The island platform range is a single-storey seven-bay building, also comprising offices and waiting rooms in painted weather boarding with contrasting painted window reveals. A projecting canopy encircles the building on all sides, supported by similar brackets as the down platform but with replacement columns made from re-used and painted lengths of rail line. Fenestration matches the down platform range. Rubble ridge and end-coped stacks support slate roofs. Decorative cast-iron rainwater downpipes and fixtures complete the detailing.

The cast-iron footbridge, built by the Highland Railway Company, spans the line with a trellis balustrade, linking the down and centre island platforms at the south.

Picket fences enclose the perimeter and run between platforms.

The station opened in 1863 with original buildings by the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway; the present structures were rebuilt in 1892 by the Highland Railway Company. Aviemore Station is a rare and outstanding example of late nineteenth-century timber railway station construction with no equal in the Highlands. The platform buildings are finely detailed, particularly on their trackside elevations, and retain numerous original features. The curving timber and cast-iron awning with pierced timber valances is equally notable, having been sensitively restored at the end of the twentieth century. The cast-iron footbridge adds to the group value.