Pitlochry Station Bookshop
Selling Donated Books in Aid of Charities
Bookshop Founder Obituary
Priscilla Lorimer, founder of Pitlochry Station Bookshop, died on 17th November 2017, aged 91. Our photograph shows her on the right with Bobbie McGraw current Bookshop manager.
Click here to read Priscilla's obituary from The Scotsman newspaper.
From The Courier, 22nd April 2019
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Station bookshop staff hope storeroom will unearth more valuable tales of derring-do
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Volunteers at Pitlochry train station have raised nearly £30,000 to expand their special bookshop.
The team hopes a new storeroom will help them to spot valuable books – which can be sold separately raising hundreds of pounds for charity.
More everyday secondhand titles sell in the shop and kiosk for £1 each.
The Highland Perthshire station has had a bookshop in the listed building since 2005 when a small group of volunteers took over the old John Menzies newspaper kiosk.
The shop later expanded into rooms inside the station building.
The group, who have raised more than a quarter of a million pounds since starting, has now run out of space again.
Abellio/ScotRail has offered them a former salt storeroom that will need at least £25,000 to refit into the latest part of the bookshop.
A disused toilet will also be changed to store the salt.
The council published the group’s planning application for the change to the Victorian listed building this week.
Bookshop chairman Graham Holmes said the shop’s volunteers have been raising money for the new storeroom for some time.
He said they had been “delighted” by the response of local businesses and had also received substantial donations from donors including Abellio/ScotRail, the Heritage Railway Trust, Andie Millar’s Trust and the Basil Death Trust.
He said: “The store will make it much easier for volunteers to sort through the books and to mark on the stand which ones will sell for £1.
“We get the odd success with something more valuable. We had two books sell at auction recently for around £600 each.
“I can’t tell you exactly what they were, but one was an early twentieth century classic signed by the author while the other was a first edition of a novel by Wilbur Smith, who wrote tales of derring-do set in Southern Africa.”
Mr Holmes said the shop, which makes as much as £100 a day in the summer, supported six charities: Cancer Research, Children’s Hospices Across Scotland, Mercy Corps, Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance, Shop Mobility and Tayside Mountain Rescue.
He said the shop was working towards a fundraising target of £275,000, which it hoped to reach in the next few months.
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Daily Record 11th September 2018
Pitlochry Station Bookshop reaches £250,000 milestone
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Book store has been donating since its opening in 2006
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Volunteers at a Highland Perthshire bookshop are giving themselves a pat on the back - after raising a quarter of a million pounds for charity.
Pitlochry Station Bookshop officially marked the £250,000 milestone last week.
The bookshop, which is based on the station platform, has spent over a decade selling second hand books to commuters.
Since opening in 2006, all of the money raised has been split between a number of local charities with the total at the beginning of this week standing at £250,071.
Amongst the charities benefitting include Tayside Mountain Rescue, Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance, Mercy Corps, Highland Perthshire Shopmobility, Children’s Hospices Across Scotland and Cancer Research UK.
Amnesty International also benefited from sales in the bookshop until 2016.
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From The Courier 2nd December 2017
Pitlochry bookshop witnesses a love story 40 years in the making
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A chance meeting on a Perthshire railway platform 40 years ago blossomed into romance and marriage for an American couple.
And now that same station holds a similar romantic significance for their daughter after her boyfriend popped the question on a visit to the venue.
Teddy Warren, an actor from Wisconsin, chose Pitlochry Station Bookshop to propose to his girlfriend, Hadley McPherson, who accepted in a heartbeat.
The Perthshire town was already dear to the heart of medical student, Hadley, who lives near Dallas, Texas, on the ranch run by her parents Ingrid and Patrick.
Mr and Mrs McPherson first met at the station in the late 1970s when they were students, both independently backpacking around Europe.
Ingrid, who was from Germany, missed her train at Pitlochry and found herself stranded on the platform.
While she was sitting out the three-hour wait for the next train, Patrick, a young American, arrived and struck up a conversation.
Teddy proposes to Hadley on the platform outside the Station Bookshop.
Margaret, one of the many volunteers who help to run the popular bookshop, said she enjoys meeting so many different people every day at the station.
She said: “Everyone here at the bookshop is a volunteer.
“We have a rota but I always get messages asking to come in and do more, and I do often because I really enjoy it here.
“The people are really friendly and we get lots of donations.
“Its amazing, people come in with seven books to donate and end up paying and leaving with another seven.
“There is such a variety of books here as well, we have sections on old books, lots of children’s books, sports books and biographies, pretty much anything you can think of.”
She said it is incredibly important so many local and national charities are able to benefit from the bookshop’s success.
Margaret continued: “It is important we raise so much money, and that is down to the people who come in here, donate these books and give up their time.
“It is incredible because whenever you get to a train station you find shops which ask you to pay £8 for a book, but 70 per cent of the books in here are £1.
“I love working here because you meet so many interesting people and they are all so friendly, which is lovely.
“Everyone here does this for nothing and there is no big overheads like most charity shops have, which is great.”
Pitlochry Station Bookshop is open Mondays to Saturdays from 9.30am until 4.30am every day.
The station will continue to take in and sell second hand books, with all profits going to charity.
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Margaret and Sheila in the Bookshop
When the train arrived, an unknown fellow passenger turned to Patrick and suggested: “Why don’t you just stay with the lass?”.
The advice was accepted and the rest is history.
When it came to popping the question, Teddy decided to add to the family’s Pitlochry love story and again enlisted a Scottish Cupid to help him make his dream come true.
Bobbie McGraw, manager of Pitlochry Station Bookshop, said: “Teddy contacted me last month and we were delighted to join the conspiracy.
“They are a lovely couple and we wish them all happiness for the future.”
Teddy wrote a proposal speech for the occasion and read it from a copy of his favourite novel, Treasure Island.
Hadley had been completely in the dark but was thrilled by the surprise.
“I did not know what was happening, it took some moments to sink in.” she said.
“Now that I have an engagement ring, I know why he was so keen for me to paint my nails last night.”
The proposal is the latest chapter in the bookshop’s growing legend. It has raised £226,000 for charity since it was established in 2006 and famous visitors have included Michael Portillo and A.N. Wilson who both used the setting in television programmes they were making.
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