B943

The B943 is a short route in Pittenweem which leads down to the harbour. Although it is no longer always shown on maps, and has had a confused history, Fife Council still list it as extant.

Abbey Wall Road

The route starts on the A917 James Street to the east of Pittenweem town centre. Initially it heads west along Marygate (which is the original line of the A917 through town) before it TOTSOs left onto Abbey Wall Road. In fact, traffic is forced to turn in this way as Marygate beyond this point is one-way eastbound. The B943 continues south along the residential Abbey Wall Road, which is a straight road that dips gently towards the sea, seen at the end. It bends to the right on reaching the cliff edge and descends further with a line of houses now blocking the view to reach the entrance to the harbour. Here Abbey Wall Road becomes East Shore which has never been marked on maps as part of the B943, however the Council list implies that it is part of the route. After curving round the harbour, East Shore becomes Mid Shore which is definitely unclassified. Pittenweem harbour is one of the many fine old harbours along the coast of Fife's East Neuk, with meandering terraces of old stone houses looking out across the Forth.

History

Over the years, the exact length of the B943 as shown on maps has varied somewhat. The MOT map shows it starting on Marygate (before the A917 was re-routed) and running the full length of Abbey Wall Road to end at the harbour. The One Inch sheet from 1947 doesn't mark the B943 at all, but by the 1950s the OS One Inch sheet of 1957, and again in 1962 shows the route as a detached section along the straight stretch of Abbey Wall Road only, even though the A917 has been re-routed. The 1:25,000 map of a similar time also appears to show the route not reaching the harbour, although the dashed colouring used to depict B roads makes it difficult to identify the ends of the B943. By 1969 this has been corrected and the 'Z' shape of the route is correctly shown. Current OS mapping does not show the route at all.

Mapping error

The large scale OS maps regularly mark this road as the B948 from first depiction in the late 1930s through until at least the 1970s, despite that route always having existed in Coupar Angus. This is clearly an error, but repeated over a period of around 35 years. This error also manifests itself on the 1957 edition of the One Inch map, the only one to give the route number.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Branch to Pittenweem Harbour