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Beattock Summit is the highest point of the West Coast Main Line (WCML) railway and of the A74(M) motorway as they cross between Dumfries and Galloway and South Lanarkshire in south west Scotland.
The height of the summit reached by the A74(M) motorway is 1,033 feet (315 m) above sea level. The adjacent railway reaches a slightly lower elevation of . The summit is the watershed between the River Clyde to the north and Evan Water, a tributary of the River Annan to the south.
The northbound climb has a ascent, with gradients of up to 1 in 69 (1 foot of rising or falling gradient for every 69 feet of distance) which made it a notoriously severe climb in the days of , which frequently required Bank engine to get their trains up the incline. There was an engine shed at Beattock which had banking locomotives on standby twenty-four hours per day to minimise train delays. The railway was electrified in 1974 by British Rail. The signal box at the summit was also removed as part of the electrification project, with the signalling now being controlled from a new power signal box at Motherwell.
The severity of the climb to the summit is referenced in W. H. Auden's poem Night Mail, written in 1936 for the G.P.O. Film Unit's celebrated production of the same name.
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