B9000
| B9000 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Location Map ( geo) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| From: | Newburgh (NJ999251) | ||||||||||||||||||
| To: | Pitmedden (NJ881274) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Distance: | 7.6 miles (12.2 km) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Meets: | A975, A90, B999, A920 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Former Number(s): | B9003 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Old route now: | A920 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Highway Authorities | |||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Counties | |||||||||||||||||||
| Route outline (key) | |||||||||||||||||||
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The B9000 is a cross-country B-road in east Aberdeenshire.
Route
The route starts on the A975 coast road in Newburgh and heads west along School Road. At first houses face onto the road opposite the school, but soon the more modern housing all backs onto the road which is lined with garden walls and hedges. It soon leaves town and continues westwards across more-or-less flat agricultural land. A couple of driveways lead out to farms, but there are no public roads until the B9000 reaches the Tipperty Junction with the A90. The first part of the junction is a right turn for the new local access road, quickly followed by the southbound offslip. After passing under the A90, the B9000 meets a roundabout joining the northbound onslip and the southern arm of the access road. This in fact joins the old A90 line a little to the south, and heads south to Rashiereive Junction, where south facing sliproads are provided.
The route briefly uses the old A90 line as it curves north then west once more past Fontainebleau. The landscape remains reasonably flat, with the road enjoying short straights and long sweeping bends as it passes through a wood and continues west across the fields. There are a handful of roadside properties passed, and two crossroads before a sharp kink in the road crosses a dismantled railway line. The bends are not so easy on the next section, with some sharper kinks to navigate and the straights are progressively shorter as the route crosses a low hill and dips down beyond. There are a few more houses along the roadside and the B9000 soon reaches a re-aligned T-junction on the B999 on the southern edge of Pitmedden.
There is a multiplex north for about half a mile, largely across fields, into the centre of the village, where the B9000 forks to the left onto Old Meldrum Road. It heads west out of town along a short straight and soon ends at a TOTSO junction on the A920. The A920 continues ahead to Old Meldrum, and also turns right bypassing Pitmedden on its way to Ellon.
History
None of the above was numbered B9000 in 1922: at that time the road ran from Oldmeldrum west to Colpy on the A96. In the mid-1930s the road was extended eastwards along the original course of the B9003 to meet the A975 Coast Road at Newburgh. However, much more recently, in the 1970s, the B9004, most of B9000, and B9014 were renumbered as the A920. The new route starts in Ellon and extends westwards along the old B9004, about half of the old B9003 and the original route of the B9000 to reach Colpy. Then after a long multiplex with the A96 it continues west from Huntly to Dufftown. This leaves the B9000 as a much shorter route once more, wholly on the course of the old B9003. As such the whole of the original B9000 is now numbered A920.
An official document from 16-5-1934 details the following changes:
To be extended to Newburgh from Oldmeldrum over the whole line of Route B9003, commencing at a junction with Route A947 (Banff-Aberdeen) about 1 mile east of Oldmeldrum and proceeding in an easterly direction via Cairnbrogie to a junction with Route B999 (Courtstone-Cloverhill) at Pitmedden thence from a junction with Route B999 at Housieside continuing eastward via North Logierieve and Fontainebleau to a termination at a junction with Route A975 (S. of Foveran-Coldwells) at Newburgh.
