B876
| B876 | ||||
| Location Map ( geo) | ||||
| ||||
| From: | Reiss (ND333548) | |||
| To: | Castletown (ND196678) | |||
| Distance: | 12.2 miles (19.6 km) | |||
| Meets: | A99, A870, A836 | |||
| Former Number(s): | A88 | |||
| Primary Destinations | ||||
| Highway Authorities | ||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||
| ||||
For the former B876 from Thurso to John o'Groats, see B876 (Thurso - John o Groats).
The B876 follows part of the alternative route from Wick to Thurso. It is less than a mile further than the main A road route to the south, and often has less traffic making for a quicker journey.
Route
The road starts at a TOTSO on the A99 just outside Wick at Reiss Junctionand heads north west, through the scattered village of Killimster. It follows a series of straights, some long enough to pass slower traffic, some frustratingly short, before dipping to cross between the Moss of Killimster and the Moss of Wester. A longer straight lifts the road up to a trig point at 48m, after which it undulates through a patchwork of fields to the junction with the B870. This is a simple T-junction, and the B876 continues past some patches of forestry to Hastigrow. A windier section is followed by another straight through the scattered houses of Thura which leads into Bower, perhaps the largest settlement on the road, but certainly not a nucleated village.
The further north the road gets, the twister it becomes, curving around the low summit of Coopers Hill and reaching its highest point at nearly 60m. The descent is long and gently until it finally comes into the 30 limit for Castletown, terminating on the A836 at a simple give-way T-junction, where you can turn left for Thurso or right to return to the A99. It is a busy road, used by a lot of Wick - Thurso traffic as an alternative to the A882 route, but busy in Caithness still means relatively empty! A couple of villages have 40 limits, and some interesting fingerposts point to Tain and Greenland!
History
The B876 was originally part of the main A88 route which started in Inverness, and headed north along the coast to Wick, before turning west to reach Thurso. However, the A88 was re-routed later in the 1920s to take the more direct route from Wick, now the A882. This saw the original line downgraded to become the B876, which it remains, largely unchanged today.
