The first stirrings of the railways which were make Inverness the hub of railway communication in the Scottish Highlands and the centre of operations for the Highland Railway was the Inverness & Nairn Railway, opened on Monday 5th November 1855 connecting Inverness with Nairn, which lies to the east of Inverness in Morayshire. The next activity was the passing of the Act to construct the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway on 21st July 1856, which would make an end-on junction with the Inverness & Nairn to extend the length of railway further eastwards as far as Keith, where it would make another end-on junction, this time with the Great North of Scotland Railway, which was pushing north westwards from Aberdeen, completion of which would at last give the good people of Inverness a railway connection to the south of Scotland and from there to the rest of the British Isles. In 1858 rail communication was finally opened throughout between Inverness and Aberdeen and in May 1861 the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway formally took over the Inverness & Nairn Railway Company.
In the meantime thoughts were turning towards laying a line of rails northwards from Inverness, starting with the publication of a Prospectus in November 1859 under the title of the Inverness & Ross-shire Railway. The necessary Act of Parliament received Royal Assent on 3rd July 1860 and although the Act authorized construction of a line of railway as far north as Invergordon, the initial tenders for construction were only invited for the section from Inverness to Dingwall. The line opened to traffic thus far on 11th June 1862. The Inverness & Ross-shire Railway was then taken over by the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway, coming into effect on 30th June 1862. The remainder of the line to Invergordon was not to be opened to traffic until 23rd March 1863.
With trains running as far as Dingwall m 1862, talk was that a line should be built to the West Coast of Scotland and a meeting was held in London on 26th April 1864 of landowners and other interested persons to consider such a railway being built, to be followed up by a public meeting in the Caledonian Hotel in Inverness on Friday 15th July 1864. The eventual outcome was the passing of the Dingwall & Skye Railway Act on 5th July 1865, authorizing the building of a 63-mile line from Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh. However, some landowners were to prove obstructive and money also became difficult to raise, the Highland lairds being traditionally short of cash despite large but barren land holdings.
With deviations forced upon the Dingwall & Skye Railway and the money shortage, a Deviation Act was passed in 1868. One idea was to halt the railway short of Kyle of Lochalsh. The first thoughts were to make the western terminus of the line at the head of Loch Carron, but navigational difficulties and water depths
