A1107

The A1107 provides a more scenic northern alternative to a stretch of the A1 in the Scottish county of Berwickshire. It is generally on a NW/SE alignment and rural apart from one large village and one small town.

Route

The A1107 near Redheugh Farm

At its north west end, the A1107 leaves the modern A1 alignment at Tower Bridge, just south of the bypassed village of Cockburnspath. It immediately swings sharply to the left and goes north along an old bit of the A1 before bending right past its original terminus. Now heading a little north of east, the route has a gentle descent, passing over the ECML before falling more steeply to a high, narrow bridge over the Pease Burn. It then climbs steadily with gentle bends for several miles, despite also getting closer to the coast. There are some truly spectacular views out to sea from this hillside, with the steep cliffs and jagged coastline visible ahead and behind if not directly below. This long climb across the fields reaches a summit of over 225m as it straightens out on the plateau of Coldingham Moor. A block of woodland stands on the right, with wind turbines on the hillside between the road and the coast, while the road stretches out ahead into the distance.

After a mile and a half of gentle undulations, the route kinks slightly right onto another mile long straight, which slowly loses height. The bends then return, although the straight continues ahead for nearly another mile as an unclassified road (with a slight adjustment to the junction itself). Short straights and tight bends wind gently across the fields until, after a final steep descent, the village of Coldingham is reached, the A1107 dropping down School Road past a holiday park into the village. The School lies on the left, with houses hidden behind trees and walls at first, before a jumble of older houses line the roadside. The route then turns hard right onto the narrow Bridge Street, with the B6438 coming in from the left on High Street. The two routes briefly multiplex through the village centre, before the A1107 forks left. Hidden amongst the houses on the left lies the ruined Coldingham Priory, a victim of Oliver Cromwell (although its remains still serve as the parish church).

A modern housing estate backs onto the road as it winds out of the village and into open countryside once more. A small, outlying group of houses is passed at Eastlaw, and then after a couple of bends another long straight is found. From here it is only a couple of miles to Eyemouth, though not without more bends and hills as the route climbs steeply across the flank of Hallydown Hill. The descent is gentler, along another long straight with fine views out to sea. The town is entered on Coldingham Road, passing between modern housing estates, before curving right through an industrial area on Toll Bridge Road, a modern relief road, and so avoids the town centre. Eyemouth is a working town with an active harbour and fishing fleet. In 1881 one of the worst imaginable disasters happened here, when a third of the fleet and 129 men were lost in an October storm, with smaller losses at other places along the coast. The event is commemorated by a display in the museum in the town centre.

The B6355 turns off to the left, and goes through the town centre, looping round to join the A1107 again at the far end of Toll Bridge Road. Here the two routes cross at a simple Crossroads, with the B6355 setting off on its long journey to Tranent via a scenic route over the Lammermuirs. Immediately after the crossroads is the bridge over the Eye Water, which seems to have a variety of names. Its predecessor also spanned the railway line that followed the river upstream. The long curing climb passes a row of houses on the left - the only ones facing directly onto the main road as it passes through the town. At the top of the hill lies a roundabout outside the high school, where a road to the left provides a direct link to the harbour by avoiding the narrow streets of the town. From here there is a dead straight stretch of a mile before the A1107 ends at a T junction on the A1. Part way along, an unclassified road to the left goes through Burnmouth then meets the A1 further east - this used to be the route of the A1107 before it was diverted to give easier lorry access to Eyemouth.

History

The route of the A1107 was mostly left unclassified in 1922. A short section in Eyemouth was the B1343, but this only extended from the bridge to the junction noted above, from where it took a more southerly route to meet the A1. The two B roads have also changed number, the B6438 into Coldingham was originally the B1344 and the B6355 into Eyemouth was part of the B6364. By 1927, the B1343 had been substantially extended north west to meet the A1 at Tower Bridge, thus effectively forming the current route of the A1107. A few years later, the 1932 edition of the OS Ten Mile Map shows that the route has been upgraded throughout and renumbered as the A1107. While the B6355 has been diverted to Eyemouth at this time, the B1344 remains in Coldingham, but has been renumbered on the 1936 edition.

There have been a number of localised improvements along the route since. The slight extension to meet the new A1 at Tower Bridge obviously came about in 1992 when the new road opened. The junction on Coldingham Moor where the route turns off the long straight appears to have been realigned between 1963 and 1965. At the top of the long straight that drops down into Eyemouth, a couple of bends have been removed more recently, with a single sweeping curve inserted instead. The old bends can partially be identified from field boundaries, visible on aerial photography. The Eyemouth relief road is much newer, although the construction date has not yet been identified.