B9058

The B9058 serves the northern half of Shapinsay in Orkney's northern isles.

Roadside

The route starts at a crossroads on the B9059 about a mile east of the ferry pier at Balfour and follows a generally north-easterly direction as it crosses the patchwork of fields and steadily climbs the slopes of Ward Hill. Most of Shapinsay is laid out as a series of square or rectilinear fields, with the minor roads all conforming to the pattern. The B9058, however, seems to cut across the fields and changes the gridiron of field boundaries to either side. Ward Hill rises to 65m, with the B9058 reaching 59m on its northern flank before descending once more. A final bend leads onto a long straight, extending to over half the length of the whole route. This leads to the Ness of Ork, the route passing the last farm and terminating at a right-angled left turn.

Although there is never a centre line, much of the route is just about wide enough for two cars to pass. However, it gets progressively narrower as it runs along the straight, dropping to single track somewhere near the T junction at Edmonstone and getting narrower still before it reaches its far end, which occurs without ceremony as the road bends sharply left.

History

Unusually for routes in the Orkney northern Isles, the B9058 has seen some changes since it was first classified in 1922. Originally it was the B9058 that started at the pier in Balfour; it is not known when the two numbers were swapped, but certainly before 1949 when the B9059 is first shown reaching Balfour. At the opposite end of the route, the short section of road from the final bend, which ends by a picnic table above the beach, was part of the B9058 until recently - but the road was truncated back to its 1922 northern terminus before 2010. Again, precise dating for when this was added to the route is unknown.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Balfour - Ness