B766

The B766 is a partially urban B-road which heads south through the southern suburbs of Glasgow and into open countryside beyond.

Route

The route starts on the B768 in Battlefield at traffic lights opposite the Victoria Infirmary and then heads eastwards along Battlefield Road (the former A727) between shops and a college campus. It is initially a dual carriageway, although parked cars and bus stops mean there is only really one traffic lane each way. The dualled section comes to an end just before the road passes under a railway line, soon after which it reaches another set of traffic lights on Cathcart Road. The B766 TOTSOs right here, and a few car lengths further on it forks left at the next set of traffic lights, which mark the original northern end of the route. Now following King's Park Road, the route curves to the east between tenements and modern blocks of flats to reach yet more traffic lights. It continues ahead on the straighter residential Kings Park Avenue to another signalised crossroads. To the left is the end of the A728 and the other two directions are B762. There is a short multiplex to the right along Aitkenhead Road to pass under a railway line.

B766 Carmunnock Road at Lainshaw Drive

After the bridge, the B762 turns right at the next set of traffic lights, while the B766 continues ahead along the curving Aitkenhead Road. A short distance further on is a mini roundabout where the B766 continues ahead onto Carmunnock Road as it curves along the western edge of Kings Park. A couple of schools stand opposite the park, and then the houses are set back behind a service road. After a roundabout the route becomes dual-carriageway and cuts through areas of wooded parkland, with postwar housing set back behind wide lawns and service roads. Two signalised junctions give access to Castlemilk to the east and the smaller estates to the west, but there are no properties opening directly onto the B766. Eventually another roundabout is reached at what is the southern edge of Glasgow's urban area. Carmunnock Road continues ahead into the village, and is the original line of the B766, but the village is now bypassed, so the route turns right.

The bypass reverts to single carriageway as it cuts through the fields. Initially heading south, it curves round to the south east, passing the only property access along the route, although the house itself is hidden in trees. The B759 is crossed at a roundabout, beyond which the B766 turns back to the south as it crosses more fields. The southern end of the bypass is reached, with a left turn leading back into Carmunnock, and the B766 ends soon after at the Thorntonhall Roundabout on the A727 (former A726) to the north of Thorntonhall.

History

From the 1950s to the 1970s the northern part of the B766 took a different route from today

The B766, at first glance, hasn't changed route a great deal since it was first classified in 1922. However, while the overall route is broadly similar to the original line, there have been many changes over the years. The route has, as noted above, been extended at the northern end. Battlefield Road was originally part of the A727 as far as Holmlea Road, just before the railway bridge, the remainder of the road to Cathcart Road being unclassified. Cathcart Road was the A728, with the B766 originally starting on Kings Park Road. However, in the early 1950s, it was diverted a block to the east to follow Carmunnock Road instead, starting quite a lot further north on Cathcart Road as a result. Carmunnock Road was then followed in its entirety through to the modern mini roundabout near Kings Park, rather than the current route along Kings Park Avenue. This change appears to have been made when the route was extended as part of a review of classified routes across southern Glasgow in the later 1970s or 1980s, which also saw it revert to Kings Park Road.

Continuing south, the 1 mile section of dual carriageway between Croftfoot Road and Ardencraig Road was completed in 1964 per the 1964 Scottish Development Department Report. This improvement was partially online and partially offline. At the northern end, the original line of the B766 survives, also named Carmunnock Road, curving to the east of the dual carriageway. There is then a section that was upgraded online, before a cycle track cuts left into woodland along the old line of the road. This becomes lost under newer development, but it is interesting to note that where the roundabout now lies at the northern end of the Carmunnock Bypass, the B766 used to turn hard left, from north to east. Since the bypass opened, it now turns hard right from west to south!

Carmunnock Bypass - the 2 mile section of the route from Carmunnock Road to the A727 East Kilbride Road, or just before, was to open on 21 September 1988 by Malcolm Waugh, Chairman of Strathclyde Regional Council Highways and Transportation Committee. The contractor was Balfour Beatty, with a tender price of £2.5 million, although the total cost ended up at £4 million.

As a rather bizarre addendum to the history of the route, for a few years after the A726 Glasgow Southern Orbital (GSO) was opened in 2005, the B766 was extended east along the former alignment of the A726 to the Phillipshill Roundabout at the eastern end of the GSO at East Kilbride.This left the newly numbered A727 to end on a B road at the Thorntonhall Roundabout. No explanation for why this was done has been found, and logic has now won and so the B766 has returned to its original southern end.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: The Peel - Carmunnock - Glasgow (Mount Florida)