Muckhart Crossroads

The junction at Yetts o'Muckhart is also known by the rather misleading name of Muckhart Crossroads, misleading because it is not obviously a crossroads. However, in the past it was a very normal crossroads, apart from one arm curving round to run parallel to another for a short distance. The junction is where the A91 and A823 meet, and that short parallel section has now been used to turn this junction into a sort of longabout one-way system.

The old Crossroads

Starting at the southern end, the A823 meets the A91 at a give-way line, both approaching from southerly directions, with the A823 being curved around to make the junction more or-less 90 degrees. The junction mouth is wide, with good visibility, and a turning slip lane for traffic turning left into the A823.

Beyond this initial junction, the A91 forks as it heads north, the left hand fork being the former A823, now the northbound carriageway, while the right hand fork is the former A91, now the southbound carriageway. Both sides have been fairly recently hatched down to single lanes, and before long the reason behind this appears. The central reservation is filled with some fairly mature trees and dense undergrowth, so the turning lane which crosses it is almost unsighted.

The turning lane

As a result, each carriageway is two lanes to the north, and hatched down to one to the south. The lane itself brings southbound A91 traffic round to head north on the A823. It meets a token give-way line on the northbound side, but as the road is two lanes wide beyond, and only restricted by faded hatching it seems that in practice this is often ignored, traffic preferring to weave.

This is therefore the start of the Longabout part of the junction, and on the northbound carriageway the two lanes effectively act as weaving lanes as the never too heavy traffic sorts itself out, ready for the split between the left lane for the A823 and the right lane for the A91. Traffic heading onto the A91 again has a token give-way line, but it seems utterly superfluous. The road it meets may be marked out as a normal two-way road, but to the north the lane is only accessible to left-turning traffic heading north on the A91, and to the south the lane is a south-bound lane for traffic turning onto the A823, but again weaving seems to be the order of the day to some extent.

If all that sounds confusing, it isn't really. Traffic is generally light, and so there is little danger of becoming stuck in the wrong lane, or missing your turning.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A91	St. Andrews (M90), Tay Br (A92)
A91	Stirling
A823	Dunfermline, Rumbling Bridge
A823	Glendevon, Crieff (A822)