B50 (Northern Ireland)

Gillygooley Road

The B50 is an L-shaped B-road in west County Tyrone.

The road starts at a roundabout on the A5 Omagh western bypass, where it also meets the pre-bypass road, now numbered B48. The B50 heads west out of town along Gillygooley Road and reaches the fields almost immediately, although it still has to pass an industrial estate and a few houses before reaching open country.

Gillygooley itself is soon reached and the road continues west across gently undulating terrain for a few more miles before bending sharply right. A short distance further on the B84 comes in from the left and the B50 is now the dominant number in a multiplex lasting over a mile, which passes through the village of Drumquin.

In the centre of Drumquin the road bends sharply left to turn onto Main Street. After the Fairywater is crossed the road bends sharply right again to continue its northward journey, then the B84 turns off to the right to conclude the multiplex on the far side of the village. The B50 then heads north, then northwest, across the fields into Castlederg. It ends at a mini-roundabout on the B72 to the south of the town centre.

Originally the B50 continued north through Castlederg (and was the dominant number in a short multiplex with the B72) before leaving town along Kilclean Road. It ended at the border, where the road on the far side was the L16 (this is still classified and is now the R235). This section of road remained the B50 until at least the mid-1970s but is now unclassified.