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A81

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A81
Location Map ( geo)
Cameraicon.png View gallery (27)
From:  Glasgow (NS586663)
To:  Callander (NN627079)
Via:  Balfron Station, Port of Menteith
Distance:  35 miles (56.3 km)
Meets:  A82, A804, B808, A739, A809, B8049, A808, B8030, A807, A891, B821, A875, B834, A811, B835, A821, B8034, A873, B822, A84
Primary Destinations
Highway Authorities

East Dunbartonshire • Glasgow • Stirling

Traditional Counties

Dunbartonshire • Lanarkshire • Perthshire • Stirlingshire

Route outline (key)
A81 Glasgow – Callander

Route

Take out a map of Glasgow, and focusing on the city centre you will find the origin of two of the A8x routes. The A81 and the A82 have similar numbers, and start in very similar locations, but have very different fates – reflected well in their length, status and importance in the road network. While the A82 stretches all the way to the Highlands, taking in most of the west of Scotland on the way, the A81 was offered no such prize. At a mere 30+ miles, it ranks lowly amongst important roads in Scotland. Still, it has a lot to offer to commuter and tourist alike.

Section 1: Glasgow city centre – Canniesburn Toll

The start of the A81

The A81 begins life, like many a Glaswegian city centre road, directly underneath the M8. However, unlike the A804, A879, A82 and A814 in the immediate area, which all get their own connections to the motorway (much to the derision of anyone on the M8 trying to go straight through), the A81 is offered no such luxury. To go from the M8 to the A81, westbound one leaves at Junction 16 and follows a hundred yards or so of A804. Eastbound, leaving at Junction 18 and following the same road is necessary.

But onto the road itself, which starts at a junction with the A804 underneath the elevated motorway. The junction is a traffic-light controlled roundabout in appearance, but doesn't have any of the typical roundabout signage. Garscube Road picks up the route, and it's off we go. A nice wide road (for an area this populated at least) pans northwest, flanking the old Monklands Canal just to the west of Firhill Stadium (Partick Thistle F.C.) and its first major junction, a merge with Maryhill Road at traffic lights. Maryhill Road wins the day, and the road soon junctions Queen Margaret Drive and a busy urban B road, the B808, aside Ruchill Park at a monstrous traffic-light complex. Very urban in character, the road continues past a large Tesco and the high stone walls of the former Maryhill Barracks, now Wyndford housing estate, then some smaller shops, before narrowing to fit under an old low arched aqueduct carrying the Forth and Clyde Canal - there is barely enough space for two lanes of road through here, whereas up to now it has had that plus ample parking room and pavement. Restored to its original width, the road continues, running alongside the canal for a short distance, and then crossing over a suburban railway (which is also used by trains going to the West Highland line) beside Maryhill Station. Soon it becomes a tree-lined dual carriageway, with Maryhill Park on the north-east side, and the speed limit rises to 50mph. A roundabout gives access - on both sides- to the West of Scotland Science Park, and then crosses the River Kelvin at Killermont Bridge, entering Bearsden as it does so. The speed limit drops to 40mph here. We then approach the roundabout-like tangle at Canniesburn Toll where the dual carriageway ends, and a 30mph limit starts. (My memories of this area span back to my childhood and catching the ASDA bus up to the Toll.) From here, you can take the A739 back south if you like hills (Switchback Road living up to its name) or the A809 towards Drymen. To continue on the A81, bear right, avoiding the main complex of the Toll.

Section 2: Canniesburn Toll – Callander

Milngavie Road is our new name as we coast through the eastern suburbs of Bearsden, an upmarket Glasgow commuter town/suburb. The A808 marks the course of the Antonine Wall and we fittingly junction with Roman Road here. Milngavie begins as soon as Bearsden ends, and we're on Main Street until reaching a roundabout where a bypass of the town centre begins. (Main Street continues as B8030.) Just after we pass under the Milngavie branch railway, the A807 leaves eastwards here. The pronunciation of the name Milngavie is a point of contention: the silent V is a relic of its transliteration from the Gaelic 'bh'. It may well be pronounced Mullguy, but arguably more properly Millguy. If the drive has drained you too much to this point, you can park in the town and set off on the walkers' West Highland Way.

A81 near Dalmarry

Now on Strathblane Road, we curve through the northern part of Milngavie and, passing the reservoir for Glasgow's drinking water, at last shake off the urban sprawl. The views improve on the way out to Mugdock. The rural single carriageway, not feeling at all like an Axx road, rolls gently between fields, until a sharp left hand bend heralds a steep drop into Strathblane, where there is a T-junction at the A891. Blanefield follows Strathblane, and as open country is regained, the small but distinctively shaped Dumgovne hill is obvious on the right. Killearn is bypassed to the west a few miles later as it always has been (the A875, for which one exits a mile before the town, is the route to it) before the road meanders across the Endrick Water. Approaching Ballat Toll we pass under what looks at first glance like a railway bridge but is in fact the two aqueducts carrying Glasgow's drinking water from Loch Katrine. We then briefly multiplex with the A811 Balloch to Stirling road. Once the A811 leaves to the east, trees, lochs and a few side roads will be our company until the end. The run to Aberfoyle is fast, with a flat, straight section across Flanders Moss. Here we reach the edge of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park and cross the River Forth. Soon, Aberfoyle will be upon us, a Trossachs tourist trap, ambitiously signposted from both the M8 and A739 in Glasgow.

This perceived importance of Aberfoyle in the Scottish road network, as described above, is amazing considering the small amount of traffic that must travel that distance. Secondly, and even worse, the A81 doesn't go there anyway; just outside it the road turns right at a tiny roundabout (previously a TOTSO) – for Aberfoyle, bear left on to the A821! Aberfoyle aside (literally), from here to the end, the A81 plods a lonely, snaking but scenic course. The steep Menteith Hills are on our left (north), and the flat land of the Forth valley on our right, giving a distinct feeling of being on the edge of the Highlands. We pass the Lake of Menteith (yes, lake, not loch - the name was probably Laigh, meaning lowland, of Menteith, and was transferred to the water) with its island castle, and reach the indignity of another totso with an Axxx route - this time the A873. North is our direction now once more, still deep in the Trossachs. Look east for a beautiful view of Loch Rusky, and the road becomes hillier and continues to swing and sway to the line of least resistance through the forest. We turn east towards the River Teith before turning north again at a sharp and awkwardly-cambered bend where the B822 joins us. A final straight of over a mile takes us to the edge of Callander, where we meet the former A892 and cross the Teith on Callander Bridge before ending in the town centre at Callander on the A84.

History

A81 historic route from 1922/3 numbering




A81
Junctions
Crossings
Roads
Places
Miscellaneous
Related Pictures
View gallery (27)
A81-callander-br.jpgCallander-br1.jpgA892-seventh.jpgBurnbrae-rbt.jpgKillearn-br2.jpg
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