A94

Introduction

The A94 was originally a primary route from Perth to Stonehaven, then in its glory days from the early 1980s to mid-1990s it was upgraded to take the main Edinburgh-Dundee-Aberdeen trunk dual carriageway from Forfar to Stonehaven, before losing this section to the A90. Now, it's a quiet non-primary 'tourist' route passing through the flat farmland Strathmore and East Perthshire, but still the shortest route between Perth and Forfar and an alternative to the main A90 via Dundee. Reflecting its history, the remaining A94 is fast (except in the towns and villages), well aligned and capable of carrying a much higher volume of traffic than it now does.

Route

From the south, the A94 begins at a traffic light Y-junction with the A93 in east Perth, and heads north east, through New Scone (say Scoon), leaving this commuter town on a wide formerly three-lane stretch. The A94 is relatively fast and wide past Perth 'airport' (there is a private airstrip here) and passes through Balbeggie, where the B953 heads back past Dunsinane Castle through the Sidlaw Hills, to join the main Aberdeen road, the A90, at Inchture.

Annety Burn Bridge

Continuing northeast, the A94 continues through farmland to the twin villages of Burrelton and Woodside. Just after Woodside it passes under a modern railway bridge, built to remove a bottleneck although the railway, formerly the Caledonian main line to Aberdeen, had by then been reduced to a freight-only branch to Forfar. (It closed completely in 1982.) The stone arch bridge alongside it, now crossing a cycle path, looks improbably narrow and low even for a crossing a 19th century main road, so presumably another arch must have been removed to make way for the present girder. From here the road is broad and fairly straight to Coupar Angus (in Perthshire, not Angus), giving a taste of what is to come later. Coupar Angus has a relief road (opened 1997), using part of the railway trackbed to avoid the town centre, so at traffic lights the A923 heads southeast to Dundee, and at a mini roundabout the same route heads northwest to Blairgowrie. Leaving Coupar Angus the road is of consistently high quality for the rest of the way to Forfar, with straights and smooth curves, and speed camera signs deterring the high speeds which would be easy to achieve. The next village is Meigle, once rather spoiled by the grime of heavy traffic but now pleasant, where the Dundee - Alyth road (B954, once A927) multiplexes briefly with the A94.

Our road is now heading almost due east as it enters Angus, and bypasses Glamis, famous for its castle, the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The A928 heads north to Kirriemuir and south to Dundee here. The final section of the A94 passes the hamlets of Jericho and Douglastown before reaching the A90 Forfar bypass at a folded dumbbell interchange. The A94 continues ahead into the town centre, ending at traffic lights on the A926.

History

The A94 originally reached Stonehaven

Originally the A94 started closer to the centre of Perth, at the western end of Perth Bridge and a junction with the then A85 (now A989), Charlotte Street / Tay Street. The A93 ended on the A94 and not the other way round as is now the case. The A94 was later extended further in to the city, crossing the river and following the southern part of what is now the inner ring road to meet the A90. There was also a spur on the east bank of the Tay to meet the A85. These two routes had previously been the A920 and A922 respectively.

A94 historic route from 1922/3 numbering

At the other end, the A94 originally extended beyond Forfar via Brechin to end on the A92 on the southern edge of Stonehaven. At some point in the 1960s the route was diverted onto roads avoiding Forfar town centre to the west and north, with improvements being made by 1969. The Forfar to Stonehaven section was gradually upgraded to dual carriageway in the 1980s and 1990s with the places en route being bypassed. The section through Forfar, for example, became A929, A926, B9128. Then in the early 1990s the whole section from the Forfar bypass onwards to Stonehaven became part of a much-extended A90, to give the main road along the East Coast a single number. Around the same time the A94 was extended back into Forfar town centre along what had briefly been the A929. Some maps still give that road the A929 number but signage (and the fact that the remainder of the A929 is in Dundee) shows this is not the case.

Improvement Opening Dates

Year	Section	Notes
1962	Eassie Diversion	The 0.6 mile road and new bridge to avoid the level crossing was opened on 6 July 1962 by John Maclay, Secretary of State for Scotland.
1965	Glamis Bypass	Shown on the 1966 OS Route Planning map but not on the 1965 edition. 1.1 mile.
1997	Coupar Angus Relief Road	Burnside Road and Station Road. Opened on 20 January 1997 by David Scott, Deputy Provost. Contractor was Tayside Contracts, cost £1.5 million.