B942

The B942 is a short B-road in Fife's East Neuk, linking the A917 to itself and so providing a shorter route end to end, avoiding Elie.

Route

B942/A917 Junction

The route starts at a forked T junction on the A917 a few hundred yards from the coast to the west of Pittenweem. From here the road heads westwards and soon crosses a bridge over a dismantled railway line, which is called the Waterless Bridge. Since the railway closed, the old cutting has been filled in and the land merged back into fields, leaving a bridge which appears to cross nothing. The road then bends sharply to the right around a small wood and passes Abercrombie Farm which is the first property on the route. A narrow strip of trees then stands along the north side of the road as it winds north west to meet the B9171, where it turns sharply to the west. A long straight then leads across the hillside to Pitcorthie where the B941 is crossed at Cairnie Crossroads. Then, after crossing the Den Burn, a shorter straight leads into Colinsburgh.

The village is passed through on Main Street, which is unusually lined with old two and even three storey terraced houses standing right behind the pavement. Many similar small villages across Fife have more of the single storey cottages, often set back behind small gardens mixed in to the street scene, as can be found at the western end of Colinsburgh. Houses continued to be dotted along the roadside as it curves gently westwards through fields to end back on the A917 at a T junction, where the A917 has to TOTSO.

History

The area in 1956, showing the A921

Although the B942 has the same route as its description in the 1922 Road Lists this has not always been the case. After World War II the A921 was created as a new trunk route serving the eastern end of Fife. This took over the western end of the A917, over half of the B942 and all of what is now the B9171, just leaving the easternmost section of the B942 in place (east of what is now its junction with the B9171). This explains the surviving TOTSO between the A917 and the B942 at the western end. Despite being intended as an important trunk route, very little improvement work seems to have been carried out along the route, leaving sharp bends and poor junctions. This situation lasted until at least the 1970s but the A921 is now defunct and the B942 has regained all of its original route.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Kirkton of Largo - Colinsburgh - Pittenweem