B9122

This article is about the current route of the B9122 in Shetland.
For the earlier B9122 in Banffshire, see B9122 (Banffshire).

The B9122 forms a loop off the A970 towards the southern end of Mainland Shetland.

Approaching Channerwick

The route starts to the south of Channerwick at a sharp corner on the A970 and heads southwest up the valley of the Burn of Teevliks. This climbs across moorland to a summit of over 100m, from where the view out across St Ninian's Isle is quite spectacular. The road is only S1 but is only really serving local traffic most of the time. After crossing the watershed the road descends above the Red Burn. A couple of bends take it past Williamsetter, then a right turn leads to the village of Bigton and the island, which is connected to the Shetland Mainland by a sand bank. The road is now dead-straight for the best part of a mile, although the sea is now largely hidden from view, with low hills lying between road and shore.

At Rerwick, the road starts to wind again as it drops to the coast at the Bay of Scousburgh and runs along the cliffs to Scousburgh itself; this small settlement is the largest en route. The landscape feels a lot more settled now, with houses dotted about along the roadside and amongst the small fields. It can be bleak in winter, but seems lush and green in the summer months. The route then skirts the edge of South Scousburgh before continuing on southeastwards, reaching a slight crest from where both shores of the Mainland can be seen ahead and behind. After zigzagging through Skelberry the road ends at a T-junction back on the A970; that road has taken a slightly shorter but much better engineered route since the start of the B9122.

History

The route was originally unclassified - indeed the 1923 MoT map shows the road as merely a track. It is first shown on the 1935 edition of the OS Ten Mile Map, but neighbouring numbers are all known to have been allocated in the late 1920s, certainly before 1932. It seems most likely therefore that the route was allocated at that time, and missed off from the 1932 Ten Mile Map, but there was an earlier, short lived, use of the B9122 number in Banffshire.

The road itself is largely unchanged in route since it was first classified. However, the junctions at either end have both been realigned as part of the improvements to the A970. At the north end, the changes are relatively minor, the B9122 having been extended a few metres along the former A970, which previously crossed the burn at the old bridge, to pass the telephone exchange. At the southern end, the A road previously ran past the houses opposite the junction, the old line still easy enough to trace. The B9122 appears to have followed the current line of the A970 south to meet the old road, somewhere near the junction with the side road to Boddam. However, before this, the A road took the straighter route through the farm, and the Ten mile maps seem to suggest that the B9122 doubled back on itself to meet the A road to the north. However, the small scale of this mapping makes it difficult to be certain.