A759

The A759 connects the Ayrshire town of Kilmarnock with the coast. Originally numbered B750, the road was given Class I status in the late 1920s.

Route

The route starts on the south western edge of the Kilmarnock town centre one-way system at the junction of the A735 (St Marnock Street and John Finnie Street) and the B7081 (Portland Road). The junction is a busy signalised crossroads, with the A759 initially heading south on Dundonald Road, past the courts, before curving to the south west as it runs through the Mount area between parkland and large detached houses. A signalised crossroads is quickly followed by an unusual Fiveways junction as the route turns westwards, now running between long rows of detached bungalows. At length these give way to more modern housing, the estate to the south largely turning its back to the main road, with service roads and high hedges around back gardens. A slight kink to the left brings the A759 alongside the railway line shortly before it passes under the A71 southern bypass, without a direct connection.

Gatehead Level Crossing

A little after the bypass, the route reaches a roundabout whose primary purpose seems to be to turn the route to the north for a very short distance and take it across the railway line. The A759 then has to TOTSO left at a T junction with the B7064, which continues ahead and provides access to the A71 at the Moorfield Roundabout. The A759, meanwhile, it heading west once more, leaving Kilmarnock behind, and passing the Moorfield Industrial Estate. It is still running alongside the railway, which runs just to the south, before the two routes diverge a litle as they approach the small village of Gatehead. The B751 then comes in from the right, with both routes multiplexing for about a mile as they, turning south through the village as Main Road, then Milton View. The railway is crossed at a level crossing and then at the southern edge of the village the route crosses the River Irvine on Old Rome Bridge.

As the route turns back to head west, the B751 turns left to head south. For the next mile the route meanders a little across farmland, before reaching a fork junction with the B750 as it heads into Dundonald. Two long straights carry the route along the northern edge of the town, crossing the B730 at a staggered crossroads roughly half way. A further series of straights then carry the route around the base of a hill which has been substantially excavated as Hillhouse Quarry. A couple of miles later it passes under the A78 at what is half a dumbbell junction: there are only south facing sliproads here, the close proximity of the railway line preventing north facing slips. Instead, access to and from the north is provided at the Meadowhead Roundabout a short distance to the north of here, reached via an unclassified road running parallel to the A78.

Now heading south along the pre-bypass A78, parallel to that route's present course, the A759 meets and multiplexes with the B746 at Barassie Road end. It then skirts the eastern side of Barassie, now relegated to a suburb of Troon, before passing some modern housing estates and then crossing a couple of fields. It then passes through the still separate village of Loans as Main Street. At a mini roundabout at the far end of Loans, the B746 continues to the south along the former A78 and the A759 turns west as Troon Road then Dundonald Road, crossing a couple of fields into the Muirhead district of Troon. A cemetery and golf courses sit to either side of the road next to the old Troon railway station. The roadside then becomes more residential again, before passing under a railway line (for the current Troon railway station). From here it heads south west again as Portland Street, meeting the B746 once more, and ending at a junction with the B749 at Troon Cross.

History

As noted above, the A759 was originally numbered as the B750 in 1922. That route was unusual in that it had a long multiplex with the A78 between Barassie and Loans; much shorter multiplexes elsewhere around the country were avoided by issuing two numbers. This multiplex was retained when the route was upgraded to become the A759 in c1928, although it was lost when the A78 was dualled, and the A759 now follows the old road, mostly in a multiplex with the B746, while the A78 follows a new, parallel alignment alongside.

Elsewhere along the route, there have been surprisingly few changes. It still starts at the same place in Kilmarnock, and while there is a new bridge over the railway on the edge of town, the sharp double bend (now alleviated by the roundabout and TOTSO) always existed. Just before Gatehead, there is a loop of old tarmac to the north of the road, showing a minor realignment, but this is the only obvious such evidence. There are, however, two points where the A759 deviates significantly from the Original line of the B750. Firstly, A short section of the B750 survives in Dundonald, and it appears that the current line of the A759 was newly built as a bypass just before the route was renumbered. Secondly, the B750 appears to have originally taken a straighter line past Hillhead Quarry to meet the A78 at Barassie Road End. The earliest map showing the A759 in enough detail is the OS Quarter inch from 1932, and this clearly shows the current alignment, so again it seems that this was a new build road before the route was renumbered.