A92/Dundee - Montrose

The A92 across Angus has declined in importance since the decision was made to improve what is now the A90 route via Forfar instead. That route is now fully dualled and provides the main link south from Aberdeen, while the coastal A92 has only been dualled as far as Arbroath. From there to Montrose, it appears little changed from the route first assigned the number over a century ago.

Route

Through Dundee

The A92 lands in Dundee from the Tay Road Bridge in the midst of the Waterfront redevelopment area. When the bridge was built, a free-flowing grade separated junction in the general form of a Trumpet was provided here, but in recent years the land take for this tangle of sliproads was considered excessive, and so it has been largely removed. Heading into Dundee, the left turn offslip survives, heading for the A85, but all other movements are by the main ramp, which meets the A991 gyratory at a signalised T junction. The A92 then finds itself the junior partner in a short multiplex with the A991 along South Marketgait, the two splitting at the second set of lights, where the A911 turns left onto East Marketgait, while the A92 continues ahead as the S4 East Dock Street. There are some fine old buildings around Dundee's waterfront area, interspersed with modern infill, but by the time the A92 separates from the A991 it is already heading into the old docks area, with low rise brick warehousing (mostly converted to offices and the like) to the right, with a retail park opposite.

A more industrial zone follows, with the road running alongside the railway. There is a short section of central reservation which seems to be primarily to prevent some right turns, before the route sweeps left - right to pick up Broughty Ferry Road at a sharp fork. Large detached houses now line both sides of the road, most of them set back in large gardens surrounded by trees and bushes. At the next set of lights, the A92 has to TOTSO left onto the fully dualled Green Dykes Road, with Broughty Ferry Road continuing ahead as the A930. The A92 now passes through a spacious interwar development of social housing, laid out around tree lined avenues and crescents, with a roundabout at the centre, where it crosses Craigie Avenue. It was not originally intended to carry a busy main road, but the A92 was diverted through in the 1960s when it was still a Trunk Route. At the far end, the A92 reaches the Scott Fyffe Roundabout with the A972 and B959. Here it turns right, finally picking up its original route from 1922 for only the second time since Dunfermline!

Arbroath Road is wide enough to carry four lanes of traffic, but wide pavements inset with trees restrict it to a wide single carriageway. More large houses are passed, followed by playing fields and then modern estates which back onto the main road. The B978 is crossed at a complex signalised staggered crossroads next to the delightful old Claypotts Castle. The junction was previously a roundabout, but was substantially rebuilt in the 1990s to provide a new dualled alignment for the A92 through the junction. For a few years, Arbroath Road reverted to single carriageway, but it was dualled in 2005/6, all the way from the B978 to Arbroath. This has provided over 11 miles of dual carriageway heading east out of Dundee, although the first four junctions are all served by roundabouts. As the A92 heads east, slowly working its way out of Dundee, there is very little frontage development, indeed trees and bunds hide most of the city from view giving a fairly rural feel to the road. The few properties that do face onto the road are accessed from service roads to the rear, and even the 'Leisure Complex' at the Ethiebeaton Roundabout is partially screened by trees.

Dundee - Arbroath

That was the last roundabout, lying on the edge of Dundee's urban area, albeit outside the city council area, and it is now fields rather than housing estates that are half hidden by the roadside trees. Although there are numerous turnings along this stretch of the A92, there are no central reservation gaps, with the minor roads being simple LILOs, and the more important junctions being grade separated. The first of these is the Ardestie Junction with the B962, which doubles back to Monifieth on the coast. A series of gentle bends continue across the fields through the Upper Victoria Junction with an unclassified route and on to Muirdrum Junction with the A930 for Carnoustie and the B9128 which heads north. This last junction has the only overbridge on the A92 between Dundee and Arbroath, every other route passes below the main road. At the Salmonds Muir Junction, again with an unclassified road, the sea briefly comes into view off to the right, but the almost flat landscape soon hides it again. A mile or so further east, a long sweeping descent reveals the bright blue of the mouth of the Tay just beyond the Elliot Roundabout, marking the entrance to Arbroath.

Elliot Roundabout with the sea beyond

Arbroath is a historic town, lying on Angus' coast, and home to a ruinous Abbey, harbour and also the land station for the famous Bell Rock Lighthouse. To reach the town, the A92 has to curve tightly away from the roundabout on the single carriageway Dundee Road, and runs alongside the railway line just above the beach. The A933 is met at the next roundabout, which also serves the towns retail park, and then beyond a holiday park the B964 is met at a mini roundabout. Here the A92 turns hard right, under the railway, before curving across the parkland on the shore. It widens out to a dual carriageway once more, and curves past some low rise flats on its way to the town centre. The tall tower of the lighthouse signal station stands prominently on the shore, just before the roundabout at the harbour. Here the A92 curves inland onto Burnside Drive, the town centre relief road dating from 1972. The route largely cut through an old industrial area by the station, now home to supermarkets as well as a small industrial estate. There are signals for Catherine Street next to the bus station, a roundabout for two of the supermarkets, while the third has a second entrance off the A933 for full access.

The dual carriageway comes to an end at the Guthrie Port Roundabout, where it sweeps round to the right onto Fisheracre, while the other arm of the A933 heads off to the left. Despite still being close to the town centre, the route suddenly gains a very suburban feel, with blocks of flats and small parades of shops. The route then winds onto Montrose Road where older housing lines the roadside, as it meanders northwards. Further out, the houses are first set back behind tree lined service roads, and then one estate turns its back to the main road, before fields are finally reached, a small roundabout lying right at the edge of the town.

Arbroath - Montrose

A long straight heads north out of Arbroath, crossing the fields to the handful of houses at Marywell. The route then becomes more sinuous, winding through woodland, with only a couple of roadside properties to be seen, before coming alongside the railway line. This is followed for over a mile to Inverkeillor, which was bypassed in the early 1990s. The road passes under the railway just before the village, and then sweeps round past a farm onto the short bypass, with the B965 turning left at the further end. A long sweeping bend then carries the road over the Lunan Water, where the old bridge was washed out a few years ago, although it had been replaced in the 1970s. A short climb follows, lifting the road onto the hillside beyond, where it follows the river downstream for a time. Another new alignment, built in 2012/3 follows, bypassing the 'Big Tree Bends', which had seen a spate of incidents. A long sweeping bend climbs higher up the hillside, and the route ultimately reaches its highest point in Angus at just under 100m near Upper Dysart.

Ferryden Roundabout

There are only a handful of houses and farms along this stretch of the road, particularly with the modern realignments, the route running easily across open farmland on long sweeping bends with a few short straights. The descent from the summit begins gently enough, but steepens noticeably as it passes through a quiet crossroads, with the distant hills of Kincardineshire lining the horizon ahead. A long sweeping right hand bend then drops the road down the hill, with glimpses of Montrose Basin through the trees on the left. As the route levels out, the A934 comes in from the left at Rossie Junction, a sharp fork, which leads onto a long straight through the trees, with a few houses on the left. A slight kink to the left brings the dramatic brick arch of a railway viaduct into view, and immediately beyond it the A92 reaches the Ferryden Roundabout. Here it turns left to cross Montrose Bridge and so enter the town.

History

Even though it seems to have taken the OS to figure out what had happened, the routing of the A92 through Dundee doesn't seem to have changed since the Tay Road Bridge opened in 1966. Things are not quite so clear-cut before that however. Unlike in Fife, the A92 seems to have started at the ferry slipway and run up Union Street into the city centre. Its precise route is then difficult to trace, but it appears that it then ran up Murraygate, King Street and Princes Street to get onto Arbroath Road, which is now the B959. This appears to have been the route from 1922 until the 1960s, although there were changes to most of the other classified routes in the city centre, and the lack of labels on the large scale OS maps make it difficult to be certain of the route. The changes first mapped in 1967 were almost certainly a result of the construction of the Tay Bridge, and saw the A92 diverted onto its current line.

The Elliot Roundabout under construction in 2005

Once onto Arbroath Road, the A92 has not changed its general alignment as it heads for the coast. However, the substantial dualling between Dundee and Arbroath in 2005/6 saw several local realignments despite being largely online. The older junction changes at Claypotts Castle are noted above, while the wandering line of the footpath / cycle track either side of the Dighty Burn appear to follow the gentle bends of the old road. At the Ethiebeaton Roundabout, the one-way exit road from Ardownie Quarry is the old A92, although it curved back across a field alongside the band of trees before reaching the quarry. Between the Ardestie Junction and Upper Victoria Junction, a long loop of old road survives to the south, still mostly in use for property access, and with two bypassed bridges over the Pitairlie Burn. A couple of laybs then indicate some kinks in the old road line.

The A92 through Arbroath in 1969

The Muirdrum Junction has been built somewhat to the south of the old road line, providing a bypass for the houses there. Again, the old road is still mostly open to traffic on the north side of the dual carriageway. The next realignment is at the Elliot Roundabout on the edge of Arbroath, where the old line is Dundee Road across the old bridge over the Elliot Water. The route into town is little changed, although it used to curve between the football ground and the old school. As noted above, the inner relief road dates back to 1972, and before that the A92 had to negotiate the narrow streets of Arbroath's town centre. From the roundabout, it continued ahead past the harbour onto Ladybridge Street, and then turned left onto the long, curving High Street. A right fork then took it up North Port and across the grass next to the mini roundabout onto Montrose Road.

The bends past West Newton House have been eased, with the old road line running closer to the gate lodges on the right, and then visible in front of the houses on the left a little further north. Main Road through Inverkeilor was also the A92 until the 1990s, with the junction at the north end of the bypass being very different from before. The old road line passed round a tight horse shoe bend in front of the cottages, with the B965 turning off at the apex of the bend, next to the cottages. Both roads have been lifted considerably for the current junction, removing most of the old road in the process. The Big Tree Bends above Lunan were bypassed in 2012/13, while the two laybys at the summit near Upper Dysart farm show an older bend realignment. This, though, is the last notable change before Montrose.