B6399
| B6399 | ||||
| Location Map ( geo) | ||||
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| From: | Hawick (NT505149) | |||
| To: | Sandholm (NY496895) | |||
| Distance: | 19 miles (30.6 km) | |||
| Meets: | A698, A7, B6357 | |||
| Primary Destinations | ||||
| Highway Authorities | ||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||
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The B6399 is a rural road in west Roxburghshire.
Starting at a roundabout on the A698 on the north side of Hawick town centre, the route heads south along Bourtree Place before becoming the one-way High Street. A T-junction is soon met, from where a spur of the B6399 turns right to cross the Slitrig Water and end at a mini-roundabout on the A7; meanwhile the mainline of the B6399 turns left to run alongside the river. The valley is followed out of town, although the river is not always visible. Presently we bear sharply right to cross the river, then there's another crossing a couple of miles upstream. We now follow a precarious route through a wood above the river to Stobs Castle, where we bear left to follow a tributary eastwards.
After leaving the wood behind we come out onto the moors and quickly start to head southwards again. We descend towards the Shankend Viaduct (on the disused Waverley Line) and bear left to enter the valley of the Lang Burn (one of the main tributaries of the Slitrig Water), which is followed back onto open moorland and then enter a wood as we descend, the road narrowing as it does so. As the road emerges a railway line is visible on the right; this is the Border Union Railway, a small section of the Waverley Line that has been reopened. This line is only short and so by the time we go under a railway bridge there is only a dismantled railway above us.
We continue south along the valley of the Whitrope Burn, crossing it a couple of times and with a short unfenced section between two cattle grids. That valley meets that of the Hermitage Water and we cross that river at a weak bridge before following it downstream. The road widens again and there's one more river crossing as we continue across the fields to journey's end on the B6357. That road TOTSOs here and so B6399 traffic bears right towards Newcastleton.
History
The B6399 was originally unclassified but gained its number in the late 1920s.
To begin with, the A7 ran up Hawick's High Street and over the North Bridge, with the B6399 using Commercial Road. These two routes have now been swapped.
