Shortly after Ian Appleby and Liz Huntly acquired Altnabreac Station-keeper's cottage, they decided that in addition to the land specified in their deed, they also owned the land surrounding the property, including the station platform and the only access route leading to the station. They started demanding money from ScotRail to allow passengers to cross their land to access the trains.

Naturally, ScotRail refused, but this dispute resulted in the railway station being shut down pending a legal resolution.

The couple found that they couldn't attend the court hearing in nearby Wick (approximately 40 miles away) due to the lack of functioning public transport. Ian and Liz complained bitterly that the nearby court had "railroaded" them into an unfair conclusion by forcing them to attend in person.

After missing two consecutive hearings, the case was dismissed.

Don't worry, they've promised to escalate the entire matter to the European Court of Human Rights.

If you can tolerate the computer voice, this channel has been covering the other side of the story.

Ian and Liz's channel, "Altnabreac Coverup," is a gold mine of sovereign-citizen nonsense, and I'd say it's even funnier now that they've lost their case and may be forced to sell their cottage to cover their legal expenses.

by Aggravating-Vehicle9

13 comments

  3. Oh its funnier than that! Some virgin /broadband contractors were working in the area, these people chased them away thinking they were Scot rail, so Virgin invoiced them thousands for turning them away

  4. I hate this kind of behaviour, it’s a much broader problem in society. And my first instinct is to drive & cycle up there, to see if there any home-made signs which need to be removed, or even a padlock on a gate which needs angle-grinding. But:

    Should there even be an Altnabreac station? It’s an incredibly remote place, with weak rail services, so it’s unlikely that anyone else would rely on it for day-to-day transport. It’s one of those stations where most tickets are sold to a handful of transport geeks who like visiting even the most unpopular stations. Having these stations costs time and money, just a little, which could be better spent elsewhere, on some other service which actually benefits the public.

    Why not shut down the station? And if you want to blame a couple of awkward sods, go ahead and blame them anyway. 🙂

    https://preview.redd.it/w90iu5k4exbf1.png?width=1732&format=png&auto=webp&s=693247292acd2e1978af900e0f9f7b3b634f465e

  7. I’ll admit that I have not yet gone fully down the rabbit hole of this channel because the videos are… *lengthy*, and mostly full of waffle and sovcit nonsense, but I fundamentally do not understand what the point of the whole dispute is.

    The people who benefit the most from the station… are Ian and Liz. In fact, pretty much no one else benefits from it – even as an item of curiosity, almost no one went there.

    The only conceivable scenario I can imagine is that they bought it on purpose with the (ludicrous) intention of trying to charge ScotRail for access.

  8. So we’re all going for a walk to Altnabreac station this weekend then?

  9. I managed about ten seconds of their video before I had to click out, it’s painful. Thank you for drawing my attention to this, I grew up in Caithness and got the train on that lane all the time, so this is particularly interesting.

  10. Saw some of the videos and I’m puzzled at their attitude, if you bought a house in the middle of nowhere that was on the only transport link for miles (the track to the main road is long) I would have thought you’d work with the transport organisation to mutual benefit

  12. Scotrail was pretty weak closing the station. 150 years use must have established a right of access if anything else?

  13. What a couple of tosspots! Who the effin eff dae they think they are? Bloody Tories nae doubt!

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