A990

Route

The A990 is a 3.5-mile stretch of road, which runs mainly along the Moray Coast between Port Gordon and Buckie.

Broadley - Seatown

Eastern end of Portgordon

The road starts on the A98 Elgin to Fraserburgh road and heads north towards the coast. After a mile, the road comes to a junction with a minor road and turns sharply right (eastwards) in the village of Portgordon; the alternative is to go paddling on the beach! The road now follows the coastline eastwards, before diverging slightly past some sea-front houses. There is then a small one-way system / roundabout around the parish church, before the road leaves the village and regains the coast. It runs along between the beach and an old railway line, now partly used as the Moray Coast cycle track.

The road soon enters Buckpool, part of Buckie, initially as a big wide street, but the houses gradually close in with the road getting narrower and narrower, not helped by parked cars, until signs warn of overhanging first-floor bay windows! There are frequent glimpses of the sea to the left, and then we pass the small conservation area of Yardie, where old fisher cottages are tightly packed in short rows perpendicular to the shore. This is the narrowest point of the A990, before it suddenly opens out once more, and sweeps round to the right, up a slight hill and terminates on the A942, which comes in from the right and carries straight on.

History

This road was originally part of the B9016 in the initial classification of 1922, but was upgraded to become an A road in the early 1930s, probably at the same time as the A942 was extended eastwards along the former B9019.

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