A99

This article is about the current A99 in Caithness.
For the first A99 which formed part of the Stirling eastern bypass, see A99 (Stirling).

The A99 follows the east coast of Caithness from Latheron, where it meets the A9, though the town of Wick to John o' Groats at the north-east corner of the Highlands. In character it feels like a northern extension of the A9, and indeed that is exactly what it was until 1996 when that road was diverted across the interior of Caithness to end at Scrabster. The A99 is a trunk road between Latheron and Wick and maintained by Highland Council north of there. Prior to being A9 the route had several other numbers since first being classified, as detailed in the History section below. The road is a two lane single carriageway throughout its length.

The start of the A99 in Latheron

The A99 starts at its southern end in the small village of Latheron at a junction with the A9. This is a TOTSO T-junction on a bend, with the A9 to A99 route from the south having priority over the A9 from the north.

From Latheron the road heads north-east as a spectacular clifftop route to Wick. Although there is always some distance - up to a kilometre, and occasionally more - between the road and the actual cliffs, the land slopes down from the road giving uninterrupted views to the sea. The scenery is generally a mix of cultivated fields, rough grazing and moorland, with scattered housing along the way. The road itself is fairly twisty, although with a few straight sections and only a couple of really sharp bends.

After Latheron it passes through the small, dispersed settlement of Forse before reaching a realigned section of over half a mile (an old bridge is easily seen on the inland side) which leads into the largest village on the route, Lybster. The road passes through the north end of the village with the bulk of it on a main street leading south towards the shore and a small harbour. Between Lybster and Wick the A99 runs next to the route of the dismantled Wick and Lybster Light Railway which operated between 1903 and 1944. The railway crossed the road at a level crossing to the north-east of the village and ran parallel to the west of the road for the remainder of the way to Wick. (We will see more place names ending in -ster, this is Norse for "farmstead" and comes from Caithness having been a Viking territory in times past.)

The road comes closer to the cliffs as it passes through the scattered settlements of West Clyth and Occumster, and is closest to them in the stretch from Mid Clyth to Ulbster. A sharpish bend beside a ruined church before Ulbster gives a sense of the height above the sea. It is worth diverting off the road at Ulbster to view or walk down the Whaligoe Steps, a long flight of stone steps leading down to a tiny harbour in an inlet between cliffs. After Ulbster the road veers a bit more inland, and a straight leads up to Thrumster, the only village between Lybster and Wick which merits a speed limit below NSL (50mph in this case). After Thrumster the views open up on the landward side of the road, a small loch is passed, and it is an easy drive gently downhill to the town of Wick. After a small retail park and the local football team's ground the road passes the Pultneytown area of the town. This area was developed as a herring fishing port in the early 19th century and was designed by Thomas Telford. The A99 meets the eastern end of the A882 at a signal-controlled crossroads. This is the end of the A99's trunk road status; beyond here it is a non-primary route maintained by Highland Council. Before crossing the Wick River by the Bridge of Wick the road meets another (leading to the harbour) which was once the A8002, but is now unclassified.

Once north of the river, the A99 becomes Bridge Street leading into the town centre. At the north end of this street the road takes a sharp bend into High Street at a junction with the B9159, which is how the other, pedestrianised, and one-way end of the High Street is classified. Heading out of the north of the town the road passes an industrial estate and the town's airport, now branded as Wick John o'Groats.

North of Wick the landscape is flatter so the road has more straights, and for a bit we are less in sight of the coast. After the airport there is a junction with the eastern end of the B874, and only one slight bend before we reach the village of Reiss. In Reiss a staggered crossroads with the B876 and a minor road is another on the road with a TOTSO arrangement, with the A99 from the south leading onto the B876 as the through route with priority over the A99 from the north. The north leg of the A99 appears to have been realigned at some time to create the stagger rather than a straight crossroads, and to improve the visibility at the junction.

North of Reiss, the cliffs have given way to some impressive sand dunes as we pass behind Sinclair's Bay on another straight. Around two miles after Reiss, at Bridge of Wester, the A99 crosses the short River of Wester. The original road crossed the river on a stone arched bridge, which still stands to the north side of the modern road. The new bridge, known as McKelvie Bridge, also crosses an oil pipeline fabrication facility and this bridge has a hydraulic lifting section to allow large pipeline structures to pass under the road as they are launched out to sea.

Next the road passes the village of Keiss, another village which stretches away from the road towards the shore. North of Keiss the land becomes a bit less flat and the road winds a bit more. It passes more scattered settlements, dipping into a hollow at Freswick before climbing the heather-covered Warth Hill. Here the landscape opens up, offering views across the Pentland Firth to the Island of Stroma and the southern islands in the Orkney Islands.

This is the A99 facing south just north of its junction with the A836

The road descends to the village once known as Duncansby but now called John o'Groats. (Only the area by the harbour originally had that name.) The village has a hotel and a petrol station where the A99 meets the north-eastern end of the A836 before continuing on the third of a mile to the north coast, where the well-known "end of the road" tourist attractions are. The road passes a large car park before ending at a mini roundabout which provides a turning place next to the harbour. A passenger ferry service sails from this harbour to Burwick, at the south end of the A961 on South Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands.

Despite the fame of John o'Groats, the true north-east corner of the country is a couple of miles away at Duncansby Head, which can be reached by a minor road from near the A836 junction.

History

Although the A99 is best known as the former route of the A9, its route was originally part of the A88 as far as the TOTSO at Reiss and the B875 thereafter. By 1932 the A88 had been rerouted (turning left where the trunk road now ends in Wick) and the B875 considerably shortened, so the entire road north of Wick had become the A882 except for a few hundred yards in John o'Groats which retained the B875 number. The whole route (A88, A882 and B875) was renumbered A9 on 16 May 1935 and the renumbering to A99 occurred on 1 April 1996.

North of Reiss the road used to be rather less than a full S2. It was widened in stages, with a few minor realignments, approximately half a mile immediately north of Keiss being the last section to be done, in 2015-16.

Between Latheron and Wick the only major change is the straightened section south of Lybster already mentioned.