A874

The A874 was a short road linking the A811 and the A813 near Balloch at the southern end of Loch Lomond. It followed Carrochan Road

History

Carrochan Road near Balloch Library on A813 (former A874)

The number was probably allocated c1926, as the numbers preceding and succeeding it can be dated fairly accurately. However, the only known record of this number are from the 1930s and 1940s, including the Ordnance Survey Ten Mile Road Maps of 1936-8. The question is therefore whether the road was missed off the 1932 map owing to its short length, or whether this is actually the second A874, allocated around 1935.

Balloch Castle Country Park Lodge and entrance gates at the north end of the former A874

The A874 number applied to the 0.35 mile Carrochan Road in Balloch, a road which opened during the weekend of 7/8 June 1924 and cost £900. It is now mostly the route of the A813. This route cut the corner from the A813 to the A811 southbound (remembering that these routes were swapped in the 1970s), and was built to provide easier access to the town and Loch Lomond Park / Balloch Castle Country Park, the entrance gates being at the north end of the road. Lomond Road, the Balloch southern bypass, opened in 1932. This cut across Carrochan Road but the A874 still continued on its original length to Drymen Road (renumbered as the B854).

Later, but before the A811 and A813 swapped in the 1970s, the former route of the A811 via Shandon Brae became unclassified due to new housing in the area. At this time, the southern half of the A874 became the mainline of the A811, whilst the northern section became part of the A813, meaning that the two routes cannoned at the roundabout. This was still the case on the 1974 OS 1 inch map.

The section north of the current A811 is now unclassified.