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B792

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B792
Location Map ( geo)
Cameraicon.png View gallery (5)
From:  West Calder (NT018632)
To:  Wester Woodside (NS961735)
Via:  Bathgate
Distance:  7.7 miles (12.4 km)
Meets:  A71, B7015, A705, A7066, A89, B8047, A706
Highway Authorities

West Lothian

Traditional Counties

Midlothian • West Lothian

Route outline (key)
B792 West Calder - Wester Woodside

The B792 provides a North-South link between a number of semi-rural communities in Western West Lothian linking them to the still important town of Bathgate. The route was originally unclassified but was created in stages in the 1920s - the number is the first new Class II road in the 7-zone following the original 1922 classification, and so was initially issued in 1924.

Route

West Calder to Blackburn

Towards Blackburn

The B792 begins in the centre of West Calder at a signalised T-junction with the A71, a short distance west of a similar junction with the B7008. It heads downhill along Cleuch Brae, quickly passing under the railway line and so out of West Calder. A small burn is crossed at the bottom, and then the route climbs a little before sweeping round to the right, past the associated hamlet of Mossend. The route curves to head southwest for a while, following the burn upstream towards a substantial wooded bing ahead. A double bend consisting of 90-degree turns takes the route round the northern side of the bing, with a view of the prominent Historic Monument of the Five Sisters, a shale bing that provides a reminder of West Lothian as the birthplace of the Victorian Shale Oil industry. Much of this old mining landscape is now protected as a nature reserve, although the bing to the left is now home to HMP Addiewell .

The village of Addiewell lies ahead, although there are only a few houses along the roadside and most of the village, and Loganlea, lie off o the left. The junction is set on a bend, which turns the route back towards the north. It then drops steeply down to cross the Breich Water on the relatively modern Cuthill Bridge, before climbing almost as steeply around a sharp bend to reach a traffic-light-controlled staggered junction with the B7015, where the B792 maintains priority. On the far side of the lights the route winds northwards across undulating farmland. A couple of the bends are quite tight, ready to catch out the unwary. There is only one farm on the roadside along this stretch, which otherwise has a very rural feel, with some expansive views of the relatively flat landscape and the distant bings. A series of small burns are crossed, the road dipping over each, before finally dropping down towards Blackburn, where the River Almond is crossed on Blackburn Bridge as the road enters town.

Blackburn to Bathgate

Immediately after the bridge, the B792 meets the A705 at another traffic-light-controlled staggered crossroads, where it doglegs to the right along West Main Street onto Bathgate Road. Blackburn was a relatively small village until the 1950s when substantial new development began to the north of the traditional village centre. The B792 therefore now runs through a sprawling 1960s housing development, and past a rather ugly shopping arcade, with low rise flats towards the northern edge of the urban area. Some of the houses on the right sit back behind a service road, and the flats beyond are accessed from the other side. As the route approaches the outskirts of Blackburn, it enters a wooded area before a bridge takes it over the M8 motorway, and into the large Whitehill Industrial Estate. Now following Blackburn Road, the route slowly curves to the north east to reach the Easter Inch Roundabout, which is the junction with the Westbound carriageway of the A7066, once part of the historic A8 link between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The route then curves through woodland and under the road to the Leyland Roundabout, which connects to the Eastbound carriageway.

Entering Bathgate proper, the modern housing on the left forms part of the Easter Inch housing estate, built on the site of the former British Leyland plant. This site built tractors and lorries until 1986, but there are few reminders of this other than the roundabout and Leyland Road, which forms the spine route through the estate. This leads off from the Wester Inch Roundabout a short distance to the north. A superstore sits off to the right, and then as the route approaches the older part of the town it crosses over the railway line to reach the Guildiehaugh Roundabout on the A89, once an even older route of the A8. Continuing ahead, the B792 follows Kirk Road into a predominately residential area, initially running parallel to the A89 before turning away as it begins to climb. The properties on the left sit down below the road, accessed further up, while on the right are a mixture of detached properties, with modern infill between older houses. An area of interwar houses and bungalows follows.

As the route curves onto Majoribanks Street, the prominent telephone exchange stands on the right. The route then follows a long straight between older stone houses, passing to the east of the town centre, to reach a crossroads at the end. Here it TOTSOs right onto Drumcross Road, and then almost immediately left onto Torphichen Street. Traffic calming litters the route as it continues north, past a school to a large roundabout on the outskirts of Bathgate.

Bathgate to Torphichen

Torphichen

From the roundabout, the route curves through trees around the edge of a park, with housing up to the right. A row of low rise flats then stands on the right before the route enters open country once more, snaking north past a golf course, and quickly passing through the small settlement of Ballencrieff Toll. The road now winds with the contours into the Bathgate Hills providing excellent views of the rolling countryside to the west. This is a landscape of gently rolling hills, rising more steeply to the east where the prehistoric site of Cairnpapple Hill tops on of the summits. The road, however, remains close to the 150m contour, despite appearing to climb and fall quite dramatically at times. At length, the route follows a long undulating straight, kinking right at the end as it approaches the conservation village of Torphichan. It climbs a little, then sweeps round to the left, through trees and past the junction for the B8047. It then heads steeply downhill into the village proper.

The route winds diagonally across The Square and onto The Loan, to pass the school. There is a pleasant collection of old stone buildings here, and the Preceptory (a sort of Abbey) sits up the hill to the right. A large park spreads out to the right, surrounded by a variety of mid twentieth century housing, and then the route sweeps left into trees and leaves the village behind. The route now heads downhill, and around a sharp right hander onto a long tree lined straight. At the end, it curves to the right and forms a challenging fork junction on a bend of the A706.

History

Although the B792 was one of the first routes to be added after the original classification in 1922, it was only part of the current route that was given the number in the first instance. An officially annotated MOT map from 1927 suggests that the first section of the route, presumably classified in 1924, was the short central section between the then-A8 at Bathgate and the A705 at Blackburn. By 1927, the route had been extended south to reach the A71 at West Calder, and it was then further extended north to meet the A706 north of Torphichen before 1932. The only notable change to the route since then appears to be the junction with the A7066, which was grade separated in the early 1960s, having formerly been a short multiplex.




B792
Junctions
Crossings
Places
Related Pictures
View gallery (5)
B792 - Geograph - 167041.jpgThe Loan Torphichen (C) Jim Smillie - Geograph - 2018440.jpgB792-blackburn-br1.jpgB792-blackburn-br2.jpgOld Cuthill Bridge near Addiewell - Geograph - 6595537.jpg
Other nearby roads
Bathgate
A8 • A89 • A705 • A706 • A779 • A800 • A801 • A7002 • A7066 • B708 • B708 (Bathgate - Livingston) • B7002 • B7066 • B7067 • B7069 • B8084 • M8
B700 – B799
B700 • B701 • B702 • B703 • B704 • B705 • B706 • B707 • B708 • B709 • B710 • B711 • B712 • B713 • B714 • B715 • B716 • B717 • B718 • B719
B720 • B721 • B722 • B723 • B724 • B725 • B726 • B727 • B728 • B729 • B730 • B731 • B732 • B733 • B734 • B735 • B736 • B737 • B738 • B739
B740 • B741 • B742 • B743 • B744 • B745 • B746 • B747 • B748 • B749 • B750 • B751 • B752 • B753 • B754 • B755 • B756 • B757 • B758 • B759
B760 • B761 • B762 • B763 • B764 • B765 • B766 • B767 • B768 • B769 • B770 • B771 • B772 • B773 • B774 • B775 • B776 • B777 • B778 • B779
B780 • B781 • B782 • B783 • B784 • B785 • B786 • B787 • B788 • B789 • B790 • B791 • B792 • B793 • B794 • B795 • B796 • B797 • B798 • B799
Earlier versions: B705 • B706 • B707 • B708 • B713(E) • B713(W) • B714 • B715 • B716 • B724 • B727 • B730 • B734
B735 • B736 • B739 (S) • B739 (N) • B743 • B744 • B746 • B752 • B761 • B762 • B763 • B765 • B773 • B783 • B785 • B789 • B791 • B795
Anomalous numbers: B77


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