A938

Route

The A938, a link road in the Highlands of Scotland, has been extended at either end, with both the A9 and A95 having been realigned.

Carrbridge - Dulnain Bridge

Passing under the railway

The A938 leaves the A9 at the Black Mount Junction (locally called the Carrbridge Junction) south-east of the Slochd summit, and immediately takes a sharp right turn to join the old line of the A9. After initially running alongside the new road, it winds under the railway and runs gently downhill, mostly through pine woods, to Carrbridge. This section of the route is perhaps the highest quality, as it was the A9 until the new road was built in the late 1970s, and is therefore a wide S2 with good sightlines. In Carrbridge the route TOTSOs left at a triangular junction just north of the bridge; although this is almost straight ahead, the priority still follows the old A9 so that the “main” route becomes the B9153.

The bulk of the village lies to the south of the river, so it doesn't take long to pass the last house and then the road runs through mostly open country with some birch woods, and views across the Dulnain valley towards the Cairngorm Mountains. The road is undulating as it heads north east across various small hills and ridges left behind by the glaciers. A holiday park and a couple of farms lie in the trees to the side of the road, with a few small fields also lying between the trees. The B9007 then turns off to the north, and soon after the road sweeps round through the tiny village of Duthil, with some tighter bends. Beyond the village, the landscape is more open, with the road meandering through moorland fields before passing more forestry at Tullochgribbon.

Passing through Dulnain Bridge

As it approaches Dulnain Bridge, the road drops down to the banks of the River Dulnain, which can be glimpsed through the trees, as it enters the village. The turn to the right over Dulnain Bridge itself marks the original end of the A938; from here south or east the road used to be A95. The A938 has taken on the road to the east. The road to the south is the B9178 according to the Highland Council, although road signs and most maps claim it to be a spur of the A938. Heading out of Dulnain Bridge, the road passes a number of roches moutonnées (ice-scraped rock knolls dating from the end of the last ice age), with a noticeboard giving a full description of their formation. Half a mile or so from the village, the route terminates on the modern A95 at a T-junction.

History

The A938 is, almost entirely, a road constructed by Major Caulfeild, or his successor, as a Military Road in the second half of the 18th Century. The precise date of construction is unknown, but the road was realigned at the eastern end in 1802, so must predate that work. Prior to the construction of what became the A95 in the 1810s, this was the main road west from Grantown, originally connecting to the Crieff - Inverness military road at Sluggan Bridge.

The western end of the route therefore forked off the modern A938 (former A9) at Bogroy, and is still a public road to start with. After passing under the railway, and then crossing the A9, the old road is the driveway to Lynphail. After crossing the stream, the old road continues as a path, first along the riverbank and then through the forest to meet the main military road at the ruin of Sluggan immediately to the north of Sluggan Bridge. This route was clearly chosen to minimise the number of bridges needed across the Dulnain.

As noted above, when first classified in 1922, the A938 route simply extended between the junctions in Carrbridge and Dulnain Bridge. The western extension was a result of the new A9 being constructed in the late 1970s and saw the A938 extended along the former A9 route north west towards the Slochd. The new junction lies at the point where the A9 and A938 are at their closest, with the A9 now staying west of the railway line. The eastern extension, which is much shorter, dates from the construction of the Dulnain Bridge bypass in the 1990s.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Carrbridge - Dulnainbridge