A926

The A926 is a cross-country A-road passing through Strathmore in eastern Scotland.

Route

Rattray – Kirriemuir

Heading east towards Alyth

The route starts at a TOTSO junction on the A93 in Rattray, just across the River Ericht from Blairgowrie. Old Rattray was once a separate village, but New Rattray was built on the east bank of the Ericht as a suburb of Blairgowrie over a century ago, and so the two settlements now form a single town. Heading east out of the town, the A926 passes along High Street and onto Alyth Road, which winds eastwards into an agricultural landscape of fields and scattered farms. The road enjoys a long, high run along the hills on the north side of Strathmore, with expansive views south to the Sidlaw Hills behind Dundee. Beyond Easter Rattray Farm, the road becomes straighter, although it continues to undulate with blind summits and occasional hidden dips, as it almost imperceptibly gains height.

Uninterrupted by much in the way of settlement, except the odd farm, the route eventually reaches the small village of New Alyth, beyond which a spur of the B952 turns off north into Alyth itself. Half a mile further on comes a roundabout where the mainline of the B952 and B954 are met. After a wiggle across a former branch line, another lengthy straight passes through Selvie Wood, the road slowly dipping to cross the River Isla at the Bridge of Ruthven. Ruthven is the first of a string of tiny settlements as the road undulates eastwards. Airlie and Criagton follow, each offering speed limits, junctions or pinch points to slow traffic. The views on this stretch are less expansive, with the landscape being flatter, but it is nevertheless a pretty route passing from Perthshire into Angus, with just these tiny villages to hinder progress.

After Craigton, the road climbs more steeply through the woodland of Lendrick Bank, and then continues to climb to a summit of over 130m near Reedie Farm. The summit is crossed on another long straight, with more expansive views across the fine agricultural land of Strathmore, famed for its produce. A slight dip leads the road into the larger village of Westmuir, although the straightness of the road means it is almost possible to see from one end of the village to the other! Climbing again, the road passes through a handful of fields to reach Kirriemuir, a small town whose road history is somewhat complicated.

Kirriemuir - Forfar

On the edge of Kirriemuir, the A926 reaches another TOTSO, as it turns right to avoid the town centre; although for many years it turned left and took a tortuous route through the town. The main route is straight on into the town, while to the left the B955 follows the old A926 alignment, whilst the current A926 used to be the B955. After following Lindsay Street, the A926 has to give way again, this time to the A928 at a crossroads as it too heads into the town centre. At the further end of Morrison Street, the A926 incredibly has to TOTSO again, this time turning right onto its original route, Forfar Road, out of town.

Once clear of Kirriemuir, the road opens up again, with wide sweeping bends and long straights leading through a landscape of large fields. It doesn't last long, however, as rhe road gently drops down the hill and sweeps past the small village of Padanarm to meet the A90 Forfar Bypass. The junction is a novel take on the dumbbell form, where instead of the sliproads curving around to meet the main road, the sliproads appear to follow the old A926 alignment, with the A926 itself having to take a horseshoe route over the A90 between the two roundabouts.

Dundee Road, Forfar

This is the home straight, heading into Forfar, past some new housing developments and industrial units. The road then sweeps round to the south to meet the B9128 at a roundabout which was originally a simple fork junction. This was the original end point of the A926, with the B9128 being the old route of the A94 when it ran to Brechin. However, since the bypass was built, the A926 and B9128 have briefly multiplexed southwards along Brechin Road to another roundabout, where the A926 turns eastwards on to Queenswell Road before turning south once more onto Craig o'Loch Road, past the terminus of the A94 and terminating itself on the A932 shortly afterwards.

History

The original route of the A926 in Kirriemuir

The old A926 heading towards Forfar on the approach over the railway bridge

The overall route of the A926 has hardly changed since 1922, except through Kirriemuir and Forfar. The original route through Kirriemuir was somewhat convoluted, turning left at the entrance to the town and heading north along Slade Road and Cortachy Road, now the B955. It then turned right at a near hairpin onto Lochmill, and indeed the road is still lined like this, creating a TOTSO on the B955. Lochmill is now possibly unclassified, although sometimes shown as an un-numbered B road. At the end the A926 previously continued ahead onto what is now the B956, following Glengate into the town centre. Thanks to the one way system, Glengate then becomes part of the B957, with the old A926 route continuing onto the High Street and then Bellies Brae, which is the fourth route number allocated to the former A926 route! Halfway up the hill, just around the bend, the A926 then forked left onto the now unclassified Forfar Road to rejoin its modern route. These changes happened at some point between 1988 and 1993.

In Forfar, there was a significant change when the by-pass was built in 1987. This saw the A926 approach into Forfar partially re-routed along part of the old Strathmore railway line which closed in 1982. This straightened out the road which previously crossed the railway by twisting over a bridge at Campbeltown Toll. The bridge still stands and the section of the road is still visible albeit overgrown in places. The old fork junction with the A94 has also been rebuilt as a roundabout, and the whole route of the modern A926 south through the town is an extension from 1987.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Blairgowrie - Kirriemuir - Forfar