B896 (Barvas - Port of Ness)

This article is about the original B896 in the north of Lewis.
For the former B896 on the west side of Lewis, see B896 (Garynahine - Barvas).
For the current B896 on Great Cumbrae, see B896.

The former B896 (now A857) at Galson Lodge

In 1922, the B896 is listed as running from Barvas to Lionel, along what is now the A857 in the north of the Isle of Lewis. At Barvas it met both the A857 from Stornoway and A859, which originally ran south from here to Callanish.

However, the 1932 OS 10-mile map shows the B896 starting at the B8011 junction (then the terminus of the A858) south of Callanish and running around to the junction with the A857 at Barvas, which had by then been extended north to Lionel along the original route of the B896. This was the original route of the A859, which had been relocated to its current route south across Harris. Whether the B896 ever extended from Callanish to Lionel at the same time is not yet known, although it seems unlikely. The southern section is now part of the A858, a change which is shown on the 1936 map.

This means that the B896 appears to have had two 'lives' on Lewis before being re-born on Cumbrae, and both were pretty short lived!

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Barvas - Lionel