B722

The B722 is a cross-country B-road in eastern Dumfriesshire.

Route

The B722 starts at traffic lights on the B721 (former A75) in the centre of Annan, and heads north along Lady Street and then North Street. A few shops and businesses line the roadside at first, but these soon give way to housing as the route winds its way out of town. Although the roadside is continuously built up on the right out to the A75 Annan bypass, to the left the ground between road and river is home to parkland, playing fields and a campsite. In places this is because the land is low lying and prone to flooding, but this is not always the case. The bypass is crossed at a bridge without a junction and marks the edge of the town. The route then continues north across the fields and through a patch of woodland before a right turn leads onto a series of long straights heading northeast. The road passes to the north of the former RAF Annan, which later became the site of the landmark Chapelcross Nuclear Power Station, which has also now closed.

A scattering of farms and houses can be seen, some on the roadside, others set back in the fields. Just beyond Chapelcross, a low hill lies off to the left and then the road bends sharply to the left at a T junction and continues northwest, descending gently across farmland. After a double bend, the route levels out and soon reaches the A74(M) at J20. The junction is a standard Dumbbell, with the B-road going over the motorway between the roundabouts. Just beyond, the road also goes over the B7076 on a second bridge. Before the motorway was built the B7076 was the A74, which was accessed via a diamond GSJ still obvious from aerial photography, although none of the sliproads survive. Instead, there is now, only one slip road joining the two routes. This sits the the north east, just after the bridge, and is a single curved road with T junctions at each end which connects the B722 and the B7076. Incidentally, before the A74 was dualled, the two roads crossed at a simple crossroads on top of the railway bridge just to the south east.

Craigs

As the B722 curves back to its original alignment, it goes over the West Coast Main Line before running through the long village of Eaglesfield. There are some find old stone buildings here, along with simpler cottages and more modern properties of all shapes and sizes. Towwards the far end of the main street, the route TOTSOs left and continues north as it climbs gently over a hill. The ascent is winding, passing through some woodland just below the long summit level. It then descends again to Waterbeck where it bends sharply to the right on meeting the B725 at a T junction. After winding through the small village, the route drops down to the valley of the Kirtle Water, crossing a tributary, the Kirk Burn by the village school, and continuing to follow it north east across fields. The final section crosses undulating terrain, with a long straight as it climbs a little out of the valley of the Kirk Burn and back into that of the Kirtle Water. A final winding section leads it to a T-junction on the B7068 (former A709) next to the bridge.

History

The only notable change to the route since it was first classified in 1922 is at Eaglesfield where it has been diverted to meet the motorway, although the diversion was first put in place to meet the dualled A74, which is now the B7076. The original line turned right at the junction just before the current motorway junction and followed the track, which is now severed by the motorway, into the village. As noted above, a crossroads junction sat above the railway bridge, and while some of the width of this bridge can be attributed to the later dualling of the A74, some is undoubtedly in order to accommodate the old crossroads. The A74 was dualled in the late 1960s and the B722 diverted onto its current alignment at that stage, initially having a diamond interchange on the dual carriageway, and more recently the present motorway junction.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Annan - Eaglesfield - Kirtleton