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A907

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A907
Location Map ( geo)
Cameraicon.png View gallery (18)
From:  Causewayhead (NS805954)
To:  Halbeath (NT130885)
Via:  Dunfermline
Distance:  22.4 miles (36 km)
Meets:  A9, A91, A908, A977, A994, A823, M90, A92
Old route now:  A92, B925, B9157
Primary Destinations
Highway Authorities

Clackmannanshire • Fife • Stirling

Traditional Counties

Clackmannanshire • Fife • Stirlingshire

Route outline (key)
A907 Causewayhead - Halbeath
A907 Halbeath - Auchtertool - Sinclairtown
A907 Bernard's Smithy - Linktown - Sinclairtown

The A907 runs east from Stirling through Alloa and on to Dunfermline on the north side of the River Forth.

Route

Stirling - Alloa

The road starts on the A9 at Causewayhead in northern Stirling, right below the Wallace Monument. The first section, which runs south east to Manor Powis, was the A91 for a time between the latter's diversion away from Logie Road and its rerouting along the Stirling Eastern Bypass - but it was the A907 to begin with and now is again. After leaving the houses of Causewayhead, the A907 passes below the brooding crags of Abbey Craig, before suddenly emerging onto the broad plain between the Ochils and the Forth. It then crosses the A91 at the Manor Powis roundabout.

New and old roads

The next mile or so is notorious for having been built some six years before it was opened, a victim of the division of highway funding responsibilities when the Central Region was broken up in 1995. The connecting Clackmannanshire section had to wait until 2002 to be funded, built and opened, leaving Stirling's part in splendid isolation in the meantime. The old road from here to "Dumyat View" (an industrial estate west of Tullibody) is now a cycleway. The new road crosses an unclassified road at the Blackgrange Roundabout, a junction that seems over-engineered at first sight, but many lorries turn here for the bonded whisky store visible to the south. The closed Cambus–Menstrie branch line is crossed by a bridge that has never seen a train; this piece of road was so long from planning to building that the line was abandoned in the meantime!

As Tullibody on its hilltop approaches there are two roundabouts in quick succession, the first, Dumyat View, for the 2005 extension of the B9140, the second, Dumyat Park, for the B9096. The latter road also reaches Alloa on a marginally more direct but built-up route through Tullibody - this could well have been the historic route between Alloa and Stirling, but the A907 has always had its current line in this area. The road runs south west at first, curving to the south of Tullibody with more bonded warehouses on the roadside. The tiny village of Cambus lies off to the south at a signalised junction, and soon after the road enters Alloa, with another roundabout providing access to the business park.

As recently as 1973, if not later, the A907 ran into Alloa town centre over a (now removed) level crossing and along Grange Road. However, traffic has now been directed away from the centre and so the A907 now traverses a gyratory system either side of a railway cutting and rejoins the B9096 at a roundabout near the Town Hall. A 1970s dualled inner ring road cuts around the town centre, ending at Shillinghill Roundabout, where the A908 heads off to Tillicoultry and the original Grange Road line joins in. The route then follows a long straight eastwards along Clackmannan Road, past Alloa Athletic's Ground and on to a roundabout with the B909 to Sauchie - this was moved a few hundred yards to the east as part of the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine railway project; Alloa Fire Station is located near the junction, and the risk of fire appliances being held up at the old level crossing had to be eliminated.

Section 2: Alloa - Halbeath

Now out of Alloa, the A907 runs alongside the railway line, briefly widening to a dual carriageway - this was done as part of the B909 project just mentioned, although it doesn't last very long. The dual carriageway ends at the new Marywood Roundabout with the B910; the original A907 ran through Clackmannan. Traffic now follows the 1980s Clackmannan Bypass, passing under the railway as it curves around the north of the town. The Black Devon River and B910 are crossed over in quick succession, before the road straightens up, now running on the north side of the railway line to reach the Gartarry Roundabout. From Helensfield just to the east of the railway bridge around to Gartarry, the bypass appears to have been built future proofed for future dualling, with both bridges twice the width of the road they carry. This widening has obviously not been carried out, and it perhaps unlikely to be done now. The route approaches the roundabout from the north west, and leaves heading north east having crossed the A977 and resumed the original line of the route beyond the Clackmannan bypass.

Approaching Carnock

The county boundary is crossed and Fife is entered at this junction, before the road climbs gently round Maggie Duncans Hill and passes through forestry plantations. There is a nasty double bend over a disused railway bridge at the charmingly named Bogside, after which the route continues to meander slightly eastwards. Former coal country lies beyond the junction of the B9037 for Culross, and the A907 passes through the edges of the mining villages of Blairhall, Comrie and Oakley. A little further on is a narrow signal-controlled bridge over Comrie Burn at Carnock. The B913 from Dollar and Saline joins at an angle at Gowkhall, and a little further on the Dunfermline built-up area begins.

After running down Carnock Road and Rumblingwell the A907 bears right at traffic lights. Drivers in the know keep straight on, using the B9155, Mill Street and Bruce Street to reach the town centre. The original A907 route went along William, Golfdrum and Chalmers Streets, and this is still partially signed. The newer route stays on William Street, with its speed bumps, and TOTSOs with the A994 from Cairneyhill at traffic lights, then after rejoining the older line it crosses a high concrete viaduct over the deep-cut Dunfermline Glen. The A907 then climbs up past the new Tesco on Carnegie Drive to the town centre, where it becomes dual carriageway at the junction with the A823 from Crieff. The gyratory that follows was built in the early 2010s, around the same time as the Tesco store, and replaces the old dual carriageway with signalised junctions.

The A907 is the dominant number of the short multiplex along the dualled Carnegie Drive section as far as Sinclair_Gardens_Roundabout where the A823 heads south down a modern ring road, while the A907 continues east, picking up its historic route along Appin Crescent and Halbeath Road. Passing the East End Park, home of Dunfermline FC, the Kelty-bound B912 turns off at a junction with a complex traffic light sequence. Then there are 4 roundabouts in succession, linked by a dual carriageway: one leading to a retail development; the next to the original A907 line through Halbeath; the third with an unclassified road, and the fourth--the daddy of them all--the signal controlled colossus of Halbeath Junction, giving access onto the M90, A92 and a local road. Today the A907 ends here with the A92 continuing ahead.

History

There have been numerous changes to the route of the A907 over the last century. As noted above, it still starts at Causewayhead Roundabout, just like it did in 1922. However, from the early 1950s until the new eastern bypass route was opened in the 1980s, the A907 was truncated at Manor Powis, with the A91 taking over the first mile or so. The couple of miles from Manor Powis to Dumyat are clearly all a new build route, with the old road still very much in place alongside to the south and used as a cycle route, as well as property accesses.

As the route reaches Alloa town centre, it originally crossed the railway at a level crossing where a footbridge remains, and so followed Grange Road, Bedford Place and Bank Street into town. The straight run of Mill Street and Shillinghill then brought it out to its modern line at the Shillinghill Roundabout. Alloa Relief Road was completed in 1968 per the 1968 Scottish Development Department Report. King Street was initially unclassified and became part of the current route through the town via Marshill and Stirling Road at a later date.

Apart from the introduction of the roundabouts, the route then remains on its original line to the start of the Clackmannan bypass. Here, it originally headed into town along what is now the B910, but avoided the town centre and instead followed Alloa Road out to Kennet. Here it met the now closed-up spur of the A985, as it turned left to meet the A977 at Gartarry, at the eastern end of the Clackmannan Bypass.

The slightly uncertain re-routing to the west of Dunfermline town centre is described above, with maps and signage contradicting one another. The council website does, however, seem to suggest that the old dogleg along Chalmers Street is still the A907. As the route continues into the town centre, it originally ran the full length of Chalmers Street, turning onto Bridge Street then High Street and East Port. Although Glen Bridge was completed in 1932, the eastern end of Carnegie Drive was not built until about 1973, leaving the A907 to fight its way through the town centre until surprisingly recently. Parts of the original road in the Halbeath area are still visible; Main Street and Sandybank in Halbeath village were on the original route; Sandybank terminates in a cul-de-sac a few scant feet from the large roundabout at Junction 3 on the M90. On the east side of the M90, the original road now forms part of the access to a service station and various car showrooms and industrial units.

The A907 reaching Kirkcaldy in 1932

Before the A92 improvement in the 1990s the A907 used to continue beyond the M90, and had done so since 1922. The original route headed due east along what is now the B925 (including the apparent Kirkcaldy bypass) to end on the A92 (now A921) in the Sinclairtown area of Kirkcaldy. In the late 1920s the section east of the A909 was moved south, with most of the old road initially declassified before becoming the B925 in 1935. After a short distance as the junior partner in a multiplex with the A909 the A907 reappeared to head east along what is now the B9157. It cannoned off the A92 in the Linktown area of Kirkcaldy before running along the bypass as before; it took over the short B924 in order to do this.

The original line of the A907 east of the A92 is now almost entirely the B925, with a short multiplex with the A910 in Kirkcaldy. The route through the town enters on Boglily Road, then follows Abbotshall Road, Victoria Road and Nairn Street. The later, southern route is now entirely the B9157, entering Kirkcaldy as Invertiel Road, then turning north along Bridge Street and Pratt Street to pick up the southern end of Abbotshall Road.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Stirling - Allan - Dunfermline - Kircaldy (Sinclairtown)






A907
Junctions
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Crossings
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Related Pictures
View gallery (18)
Dumyat-vw.jpgA907-devon-br.jpgTully-old-br1.jpgGeograph-076575-by-Richard-Webb.jpgThe Glen Bridge - Geograph - 402873.jpg
Other nearby roads
Stirling
Alloa
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Kirkcaldy
NCN76 • A92 • A910 • A915 • A921 • A955 • A988 • B922 • B924 (Kirkcaldy) • B925 • B926 • B927 • B928 • B929 • B981 • B9157 • C48 (Fife) • C91 (Fife) • C92 (Fife) • C93 (Fife) • C94 (Fife) • C95 (Fife) • C96 (Fife) • C97 (Fife) • C98 (Fife) • C100 (Fife) • Fife Coastal Tourist Route • T92 (Britain)
A900-A999
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A920 • A921 • A922 • A923 • A924 • A925 • A926 • A927 • A928 • A929 • A930 • A931 • A932 • A933 • A934 • A935 • A936 • A937 • A938 • A939
A940 • A941 • A942 • A943 • A944 • A945 • A946 • A947 • A948 • A949 • A950 • A951 • A952 • A953 • A954 • A955 • A956 • A957 • A958 • A959
A960 • A961 • A962 • A963 • A964 • A965 • A966 • A967 • A968 • A969 • A970 • A971 • A972 • A973 • A974 • A975 • A976 • A977 • A978 • A979
A980 • A981 • A982 • A983 • A984 • A985 • A986 • A987 • A988 • A989 • A990 • A991 • A992 • A993 • A994 • A995 • A996 • A997 • A998 • A999

Defunct Itineries: A920 (Perth) • A920 (Banff) • A921 (Perth) • A921 (Fife) • A922 • A949 • A951 • A968 • A982


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