The Next Stop

The Next Stop coverUK versions: paperback | Kindle | illustrated iBooks Kobo 
Also available in the same formats worldwide.


Praise for The Next Stop

“…told in an engaging style that allows you to see the places he visited through his eyes… an ideal book for anyone who… has ever wondered what lies beyond the stations and the briefly glimpsed settlements along this line.”
– Undiscovered Scotland

Varwell goes out of his way to bring in local facts and histories, teasing out the threads of the past from the long-forgotten remains of kirks, castles, abandoned stations and tombstones, and reminding his readers that we are surrounded by an amazing history which is just waiting to be stumbled upon… It makes me want to travel Scotland’s rail network for myself; to stop at random locations along the way just because I can; and to look around my local area with the eyes of someone passing through just to see what I may have been overlooking for years.
Edinburgh Book Review

“a book centred on a genuinely original, ever-so-slightly eccentric concept and full of interest, insight and gentle wit
– Review on amazon.co.uk


After years travelling by train between Inverness and Edinburgh, I realised that I knew very little about the places I would merely pass through, and to which I would pay no attention as they rushed by in a train window blur.

So over the course of six days in 2012, I travelled the line and stopped at all twenty-three stations.

It was a trip that led me to the unknown, the beautiful, the isolated, the depressingly mundane, the run-down, and the haunting. From picturesque Highland villages to post-industrial towns, and from crumbling castles to dodgy pubs – a host of strange new places lurking virtually on my doorstep were finally demystified.

I finished the week with some places I am eager to return to for a deeper exploration, and a few others I’ll be quite happy to never visit again.

You can see all the posts I’ve written about the book here. There is a photo accompaniment to The Next Stop here, though the iBooks version is also illustrated with photos.