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B890

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B890
Location Map ( geo)
Cameraicon.png View gallery (4)
From:  Grogarry (Groigearraidh) (NF773396)
To:  Loch Skipport (Loch Sgioport) (NF828386)
Distance:  3.5 miles (5.6 km)
Meets:  A865
Highway Authorities

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar

Traditional Counties

Inverness-shire

Route outline (key)
B890 Grogarry - Loch Skipport
Eriskay ponies on the bogs near Loch Sgioport

The B890 is perhaps the best of all of the Uists' mad B roads. It starts at Grogarry (Groigearraidh) - two houses - on the A865 Uist spine road and heads east for 3½ miles past Loch Druidibeag nature reserve until it reaches Loch Skipport (Loch Sgioport). Almost immediately after leaving the A865, the road crosses a causeway at the north end of Loch Druidibeg, before skirting around the shore of the loch, with the mountains of South Uist in the distance. The loch is not a single expanse of water, but rather a confused mixture of lochs, islands and pools scattered across the moorland landscape. It therefore takes some time before the road turns away from the water.

Heading West now, the road does eventually leave the loch behind, with other smaller lochs passed as it skirts around the base of the low Ben Tarbert. This is open moorland country, with some stunning views on a clear day, but after some wiggly bends, the end comes into sight. From start to finish, the road passes... wait for it... two houses, one of which is derelict! What is more, both of these are in the last few hundred metres as the road approaches Loch Skipport. The final approach to the pier is through a rock-cut cutting, and then round a hairpin bend. Next to the first of the houses (a former school) and still inhabited, a turning on the left also heads to the loch, leading to a Marine Harvest Fish Farm site with a slightly more accessible pier than that at the end of the B890 itself.

The pier at the end of the B890 has fallen into a state of disrepair, however, at one time it was busy with steamers from Glasgow[1].

Beyond the road, paths wind across the moorland passing a number of ruins suggesting that the population along Loch Skipport was once somewhat larger than it is today.

The precise end of the B890 is not entirely clear. The road surface condition drops dramatically beyond a small parking area, and the ramp through the rock cutting is badly potholed. The current OS Explorer and Landranger maps seems to suggest that the B890 ends at the bottom of this cutting, before the hairpin. However, older OS One Inch maps show the road continuing around the (rather inaccurately drawn) bends to the pier. Some online maps now show the B890 ending at the turn to the Marine Harvest pier, although there does not appear to be any evidence that the road between there and the Loch Skipport pier has been declassified.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Grogarry - Loch Skiport

Links

References



B890
Crossings
Related Pictures
View gallery (4)
Eriskay ponies on the bogs near Loch Sgioport - Geograph - 36479.jpgCauseway on Loch Druidibeg - Geograph - 2569050.jpgB890-end.jpgB890-end2.jpg
Other nearby roads
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Former versions: B801 • B805 • B808 • B810 • B812 • B814 • B817 • B825 • B828 • B834 • B835 • B837 • B848 • B851 • B852
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B875 • B876 • B877 • B879 • B880 • B883 • B887 • B889 • B891 • B892 • B893 • B895 • B896(N) • B896(W) • B897 • B898

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