B850
B850 | |||||||
Location Map ( geo) | |||||||
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From: | Salen (NM687646) | ||||||
To: | Kinlochmoidart (NM695728) | ||||||
Distance: | 10.4 miles (16.7 km) | ||||||
Met (1932): | A861, B8007, B8044, B8006, pier | ||||||
Now part of: | A861 | ||||||
Traditional Counties | |||||||
Route outline (key) | |||||||
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The B850 was a dead-end B-road in the western Highlands. In 1922 the B850 started on the then-B849 at Carnoch to the east of Strontian and headed west along Loch Sunart before turning north to terminate at Acharacle Pier at the western end of Loch Shiel.
In c1923-4 the A861 was created, which took over the whole of the B850 east of Salen, just leaving the section to the north. Around this time - and certainly by 1932 - the B850 was extended north around the western side of Loch Shiel and the eastern end of Loch Moidart to terminate at the end of the road by the pier on the northern shore of the loch. It is not known whether the road ever went all the way from Carnoch to Kinlochmoidart, nor whether the spur to Acharacle Pier was retained, or became unclassified.
In 1967 the new road was built from the A830 at Lochailort to the B850 at Kinlochmoidart as a full S2 route, and the whole route became the extended A861, incorporating the remainder of the B850. The section that was once the B850 is still largely single-track with passing places, even through the villages, although Acharacle is almost two-way in most places, and recent improvements at Drynie Hill have made that section more or less S2.
One final curiosity is that the Highland Council still consider the tiny spur from the A861 in Acharacle down to the Pier on Loch Shiel to be the B850 (although no maps agree), suggesting that even when the B850 was extended to Kinlochmoidart the spur to the pier remained as a spur of the route, although it has never been marked as such since. This section is single track, derestricted and completely lacking in passing places. Apart from the pier, the only purpose it serves is to access the rear of a couple of properties facing onto the A861.