B9165

The B9165 is an L-shaped road at the eastern end of Easter Ross.

Route

Fearn

The route starts on a long sweeping bend on the A9 in the middle of Calrossie Woods and heads east. The A9 has been straightened a little here to ease the bend and its old route, now a tarmacked track, is crossed after a short distance. The B9165 then winds through the woods and around a small hill to pass south of Loandhu, before crossing over the Far North Line above the isolated - but still open - Fearn station. There are a few other buildings here but no real settlement. A couple of straights interspersed with sharp corners lead into the small village of Hill of Fearn where the route passes along Main Road. The majority of the settlement is to the left although there are a few houses on the right to block the view over the fields. A short stretch of open country then leads on into Fearn itself, a much smaller settlement with the ruins of Fearn Abbey lying off to the right. On the far side of the village, the route TOTSOs left, the road ahead being the B9166.

The road now continues northeastwards across relatively featureless countryside, although it does pass a few buildings. The route winds gently between the fields, climbing gently through a crossroads to reach the summit of 40m, before descending again. Despite heading out to the end of a peninsula, the land is so flat and there are plenty of roadside trees, meaning that it is several miles before the sea becomes visible. Before that, however, a scattering of farms are passed, and at Tarrel, the left turn leads back to Tain, a fairly busy route with some fine long straights past the airfield. At length, the sea comes in to view to the left, with the mouth of the Dornoch Firth and the wide sands of Inver Bay just visible. The road is, however, already descending into the coastal village of Portmahomack, journey's end. After passing a caravan park and the church it follows Main Street with the beach on the left. The road soon reaches the harbour with its brightly painted old buildings, and ends without ceremony at a point that varies depending on which map you look at. The road ahead goes through a car park and becomes a private drive. A right turn at the entrance to the village leads out to the lighthouse at Tarbat Ness.

History

Before the A9 was extended north of Inverness in 1935, everything north of the city was in Zone 8, so the B9165 was originally the B865. The road was renumbered when the zone boundary was moved in that year.