B8073

Route

The B8073 runs around the northern portion of the Isle of Mull, starting on the A848 in Tobermory, the island's 'capital' and finishing on the B8035 near Salen. It is a route of 31 miles, but by taking the A848 and B8035 you can travel between its two ends in under 14 miles!

Mishnish Lochs

The road starts at a roundabout on the A848 at the entrance to Tobermory (although the town is growing out along the A road) and immediately crosses the Tobermory River on an old single track bridge. It then curves around the western side of the village, quickly becoming NSL. The B882 is then met at a sort of staggered crossroads, through which the B8073 manages to turn 180 degrees, while also crossing a burn. After another, less severe, 180 bend it passes a campsite and enters some forestry where it picks up the Tobermory River. The road climbs with the river, wiggling up the hill, to the shores of 3 linked lochs. It touches the waters edge a couple of times along Loch Peallach, before climbing away a little to find a summit of 152m. At the end of the lochs, a low watershed is crossed and the road drops quite sharply with views south across Loch Frisa, although the water is barely visible.

The road follows a stream down to the head of Loch an Torr before winding around some low hills, past the scattered cottages of Torr and Achnadrish. The next section of the road is almost inexplicable, as it follows a long series of strange hairpins up and over the gentle hills. The road does gain height, once more crossing the 150m contour, but the gradients are not severe and certainly don't seem to warrant the sharp bends that are used. Just over the summit lies a viewpoint, offering a fine view out across Dervaig, and below is the steepest part of the route, descending round the tightest of the hairpins. The village of Dervaig lies at the bottom of the hill, clustered round the head of the loch. The church sits alongside the road and has an unusual round white tower, more reminiscent of Ireland than Scotland.

Beyond Dervaig the road climbs gently, without any hairpins this time, and runs past scattered cottages and through small forestry plantations, generally heading west but never very directly. The low summit sits amongst the trees and then, after some tighter bends, the road drops steeply down to the beautiful bay at Calgary, a place that gave its name to the city in Canada, because of the emigrants that left Mull after the clearances. There is a car park and campsite for those who wish to stop a while and take a wander along the stunning white beach.

At the southern end of Calgary Bay, the road climbs up the cliff, but while the slopes are steep it is never as dramatic as the cliff climbed by the B8035 further south on Mull. Turning inland at Ensay, the road follows the burn up hill before crossing and climbing south east to a summit of 178m. There are glimpses of the Treshnish Isles out to the south west from a small parking space at the summit, but the views are dominated on the descent by the panorama across Loch Tuath, and deep into the heart of Mull. This section runs across some bleak moorland, with sharp bends and steep hills in places, the worst being just below the summit, where the road drops wquite sharply round a double bend. After a short, almost level stretch, the road dips again, dropping down and emerging from the hills at Burg.

The road is still crossing the hillside high above the loch, but descends steadily before some sharper bends at Tostarie drop it almost to the shore at Kilninian. A mile or so further on at Achleck, after the road has climbed inland again a little, a minor road makes a short cut back to Dervaig, but otherwise the road just undulates along a short distance inland, running past a series of cottages, occasionally clustered into something approaching a village, with spectacular views out across Loch Tuath. After passing through Kilbrennan, the houses disappear for a while, and the road runs through some patchy woodland as it starts to curl around the head of the loch.

The road drops to the shore briefly at Laggan Bay, before turning past the side road that leads to the ferry for the Isle of Ulva, which forms the southern shore of Loch Tuath. A steep climb out of Oskamull takes the road over a hill and down to the shore of Loch na Keal. This shoreline is somewhat less populated, but the views are no less stunning as the road now winds eastwards, rarely any distance from the shore. Indeed, for the first time the B8073 can truly be described as a coast road, with the water often just a few feet away. As the head of the loch is reached, the road deviates a little further inland to avoid the sandy tidal areas along the shore, as well as the River Ba, which takes an eccentric route around the head of the loch. After winding through the trees of the Killiechronan Estate, the road has one final straight to reach Gruline where it terminates on the B8035, formerly the A849.

History

When the roads were first classified, the current route of the B8073 was lategly left unclassified. However, the section heading west from Tobermory was part of the then much longer B882, which came to an end just before Calgary Bay. By 1932 this had become an extended A848, with the B8073 created for the remainder of the route to Gruline. This situation remained until at least the 1960s, after which the A848 was cut back once more and the B8073 reached its current length.