A8001

The A8001 was first recorded on the 1934 edition of the Ordnance Survey ten mile map. Despite not appearing again on road maps, leading to an assumption it had been swept away in the 1935 Road numbering revision, it is still shown on the 1959 1:10560 map of Thurso in Sir Johns Square, apparently connecting the A882 and A840. However, as the number is marked in the square itself, rather than on a road, it is not clear whether the number applies to the north, south or both sides of the square. Smaller scale maps do, however, generally show both sides of the square as an A road, and by 1967 the A840 and A8001 have both ceased to exist, with the A882 running round all four sides of the square, as well as the northern end of Princes Street, parallel to its original route along Traill Street, suggesting a one-way system may have been put in place. The B874 has been extended along the remainder of the former A840.

There is no such one-way system today, so it is unlikely that there ever was one, logical though it may have been. It is possible that traffic to Scrabster was signed through Sir John's Square, although nowadays the signed route is via Traill Street. OS large-scale mapping shows both sides of Sir John's Square at B874, making it a double spur of that road, along with a tiny piece of Sinclair Street at the south corner of the square, to link it with the A9. Current signage is consistent with this. A9 follows Traill Street, with B874 covering the full length of Princes Street.

The last edition of the OS Six Inch map, from c1949 erroneously marks the A800 in Sir Johns Square, extending the route eastwards along what should be the A882 at the time, to the A836 junction east of Thurso Bridge. There is no other evidence that either the A800 or A8001 crossed Thurso Bridge.