Tyndrum

Tyndrum/Taigh an Druim
Tyndrum/Taigh an Druim  Tyndrum/Taigh an Druim shown within the Stirling council area
Population	167
OS grid reference	NN330303
Council area	Stirling Council
Lieutenancy area	Stirling and Falkirk
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Crianlarich
Postcode district	FK20
Dialling code	01838
Police	Central Scotland
Fire	Central Scotland
Ambulance	Scottish
EU Parliament	Scotland
UK Parliament	Stirling
Scottish Parliament	Stirling
List of places: UK • Scotland •

Tyndrum ( listen ; Scottish Gaelic: Taigh an Druim) is a small village in Scotland. Its Gaelic name translates as "the house on the ridge". It lies in Strathfillan, at the southern edge of Rannoch Moor

The main road through Tyndrum.

The village is notable mainly for being at an important crossroads of transport routes. The West Highland Line (a railway) from Glasgow splits approximately five miles to the south at Crianlarich, with one branch heading to Fort Willam and the other to Oban. Tyndrum has a station on each: Upper Tyndrum on the Fort William route and Tyndrum Lower on the Oban route. The somewhat unusual situation exists of two stations serving the same relatively small community, separated physically by only a few hundred yards, but about ten miles apart by rail. Indeed, Tyndrum is the smallest settlement in the UK to be served by more than one railway station. This is partly a legacy of the history of the railways in the area, after two separate railways belonging to different railway companies were built through the village. However, the main reason is geography: splitting the line in Crianlarich allows the contours of the glen to be used to avoid very steep climbs heading north or west from Tyndrum. Roads mirror this division: the A82 passes through Tyndrum between Glasgow and Fort William, whilst the A85 to Oban splits off just north of the village.

Tyndrum is a popular tourist village, and is also on the West Highland Way, and has a campsite, hotel, bunkhouse and bed and breakfasts to accommodate walkers.

Overshadowed by Ben Lui, one of the Munros, Tyndrum is also built over the battlefield on which, in 1306 AD, Clan MacDougall defeated Robert the Bruce and took from him the Brooch of Lorne.^{[citation needed]}

Tyndrum is also a former mining centre. The hamlet of Clifton (the row of cottages over the A82 from the Green Welly) are the former mining cottages, and up on the hillside beyond them the tailings of a former lead mine can be seen. The gold mine is a couple of miles to the south and west of Tyndrum at Cononish, situated above Cononish Farm. Work on constructing the mine first began in the 1980s but low gold prices forced the closure of the mine before it became fully operational.

In October 2011 it was announced that the mine would be reactivated. The mine is expected to produce 154,000 ounces of gold and 589,000 ounces of silver over the next 10 years. Thereby generating an estimated £80 million for the Scottish economy over an 8 to 10 year period of operation and employ 52 people.

External links

• Tyndrum local community website
• Tyndrum page on Undiscovered Scotland
• Gazetteer entry for Tyndrum
• Cononish
• Minerals in Britain - Gold (1MB)
• July 2006 Planning Application for re-opening Cononish Gold Mine