In 1881 the Great North of Scotland Railway put a bill to parliament to extend its Portsoy line along the Moray Firth as far as Buckie.

[4] In 1882 the Great North of Scotland applied for permission to build a 25+1⁄4-mile (40.6 km) line from Portsoy following the coast to Buckie and then running on to Elgin.

The GNoSR station opened as Nether Buckie on 1 May 1886[2] with the central section of the coast line, served by through Aberdeen to Elgin trains.

[11] By 1928 and on to 1938 the slaughter house had enlarged, explaining the cattle dock and a signal box is shown on the Portgordon side of the station building.

The trio had intended to spy on the military facilities in the area, especially the airfields, in preparation for the German invasion of the United Kingdom, code named 'Operation Sea Lion'.