B9030
| B9030 | ||||
| Location Map ( geo) | ||||
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| From: | Old Deer (NJ978482) | |||
| To: | Auchnagatt (NJ932416) | |||
| Via: | Stuartfield | |||
| Distance: | 5.4 miles (8.7 km) | |||
| Meets: | A950, B9029, A948 | |||
| Highway Authorities | ||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||
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The B9030 is a short road in north Aberdeenshire.
The route starts on the A950 to the north of Old Deer and heads south into the village, crossing the former Aberdeen to Peterhead railway line (now a footpath) and the South Ugie Water en route. By the church in the village centre the road TOTSOs with the B9029. The mainline turns hard right, while the B9030 bears slightly left onto Kirkgate, with most of the deflection caused by an over wide pavement in front of the churchyard gate. The meandering South Ugie Water is followed out of the village, as far as the sweeping S-bend at the cemetery, where the river turns eastwards. The road remains flat, however, and soon reaches Stuartfield, running along Burnett Street. After passing a few houses, a village pond lies alongside the road to the right, an unusual feature anywhere these days, particularly in northern Scotland.
After a left kink, Burnett Street becomes wider as it runs south past an eclectic mix of older houses and cottages to reach The Square in the centre of the village. On the far side, the B9030 continues along the equally wide Mill Street to a fork junction. Here it forks to the right, immediately narrowing as it leaves the village and crosses a stream. A long straight climbs steadily out of the valley to a low summit at Upper Crichie. From there the route continues southwestwards across undulating fields along a series of short straights punctuated with sharper bends. It finally drops down into the small village of Auchnagatt where it kinks right before a long curve round to the left past the village hall. It ends soon afterwards at a T-junction on the A948.
History
The route has changed little since it was first classified in 1922, except at the southern end in Auchnagatt. Here it used to end on the A948 in front of the village hall, the A road taking a double bend over the former railway line. However, since the lines closure, the A948 has been re-routed to bypass the village, and the B9030 extended a short distance along the former A948 line to a new junction at the east end of the bypass. The old line of the A948 survives only as a footpath from the bypass to the village hall, the rest of the old road now being within the garden ground of the neighbouring house.
