B865 (Longman Road, Inverness)

This article is about an earlier B865 in Inverness, along Longman Road.
For the current B865 in Inverness, see B865.
For the former B865 to Portmahomack, see B865 (Portmahomack).

Before assuming its current route, the B865 had another route in Inverness, namely along Longman Road prior to it becoming part of the A82. This connected the new Longman Roundabout on the A9 approaches to the Kessock Bridge with the city centre. After crossing the railway, the B865 swung east along Railway Terrace, entering the city centre on Strothers Lane, rather than the direct but very narrow route of Rose Street.

The map which identifies this shows that the B865 also ends on the A9, Academy Street, as the Kessock Bridge was barely open, and presumably the city centre re-numbering had not been finalised. However, being on the 8-zone side of the new A9 kept the route in zone! By the 1988 OS Landranger map, Academy Street had become part of the A82, which formed a loop around the city centre. Academy Street is now part of the re-routed B865, which took over the former A9 route once the A82 was extended over the former B865. It is possible that for a brief time the B865 covered parts of both routes, but it seems more likely that the Strothers Lane section was declassified when the B865 and A82 were rerouted.

For some time after the opening of the Kessock Bridge, however, the main route into Inverness was along Milburn Road which was renumbered as the A82. At this time, the A82 did a mini-tour around the pedestrianised High Street along Academy Street and then back along the river to Ness Bridge. It is assumed that if the B865 was still following Longman Road, it ended on the A82 approximately between 1982 and 1988. On completion of the new Friars Bridge in 1986 and the associated roads and roundabouts thereafter, the A82 was finally rerouted away from Milburn Road, along Longman Road and over the new dual carriageway bridge. The A82 and the B865 would have then effectively swapped routes.