The remote Barrhill station was opened in October 1877 by the Girvan and Portpatrick Junction Railway to serve the village and wider catchment area including Newton Stewart and the Machars.

The station boasts a small signal box installed in 1935 that houses the lever frame operating the loop. It was originally sited at Portpatick and was dismantled and moved to Barrhill after becoming redundant at its original location. The box only has the frame as the tablet instruments and block bells are located in the main station building and allows one railman to act as both stationmaster and signaller. This block tablet machine at Barrhill is still in operation and is one of the last on the rail network throughout the UK to use block tokens.

The station was featured in the Dorothy L Sayers novel ‘Five Red Herrings’