B8077

The B8077 follows the former line of the A85 through Stronmilchan, a small village strung along the roadside north of Dalmally.

Route

Heading south towards Stronmilchan

Starting at the western end, the road forks off the A85 as that road swings south across the Kilchurn Bridge over the River Orchy. To start with, the road is remarkably wide, and you almost get the feeling that there are white lines and cat's eyes under the top surface of tarmac. Obviously, this is thanks to its former status as the main road. The road does become narrower as it proceeds north east, with occasional evidence that it was once wider where the verge peels back. It is squeezed down to single track at the bridge over the Allt Mhoile, but becomes wider again on the far side.

After about a mile, the road turns around to the south, crossing the two branches of the River Strae as it does so. The first stream is crossed on a modern S2 concrete bridge, the second on a 19th-century single-track stone bridge. After this, the road remains single-track for much of the route. Here and there it widens briefly, but soon drops back as it passes the houses of Stronmilchan on the left. Then, suddenly, the road widens and turns sharp right to cross Dalmally Bridge, an 18th-century three-arch stone bridge across the River Orchy. On the further side, the road is a full S2 width, as it passes under an avenue of trees, past Dalmally's unusual church and so to the junction with the A85.

History

The B8077 was one of the later numbers to be allocated, and for a very simple reason. Until the late 1930s, the A85 followed this route west from Dalmally. Originally the A819 went over the hill past the Duncan Ban MacIntyre monument but was moved onto its present coastal route in the mid-1930s. When the new Kilchurn Bridge at the head of Loch Awe was built, the A85 was routed over the "new" A819 and over the bridge, whilst the road vacated became the B8077. The current route of the A85 does not seem to have been completed before World War Two, and the first map to show the new route is the 1941 OS One Inch Map, it having previously been shown as under construction in 1938. This edition is, however, a war edition, and later maps still mark the bridge as under construction, so it may have been that the road was not generally open to traffic. The 1944 OS Ten Mile Map definitively shows the A85 on the new route (the 1944 edition did not), but it doesn't mark the B8077. The 1948 edition of the One-inch sheet finally shows the B8077 number.