Black Isle Military Road

High in the forest above Fortrose on the Black Isle, one of the forest roads is labelled as Military Road, and appears to predate the surrounding forest. With the close proximity to Inverness and the military road network started by General Wade nearly 3 centuries ago, it is easy to see a connection. However, there is now considerable doubt that this particular road has any connection with the 18th Century military road network.

The route today

Lets start by looking at the route which is identified as 'Military Road' today. It starts at the eastern end at a kink on the B9160 at South Lodge near Poyntzfield. Heading south west, it curves into the forest and over an old bridge over the Allt a Mhaddaidh. This section is tarred and seems to be a public road. Just after the bridge, a junction is reached, and the Military Road turns left, deeper into the forest. For two miles the route runs south west in near-enough a straight line, climbing gently up the hill. Just before the summit, the road kinks left, although an old wall line continues ahead for another mile towards Mount Eagle. The road then drops gently down, before another kink to the left drops it more steeply down to a junction.

At the junction, the forest road to the right is also known as Military Road, so the route turns sharp right and starts climbing once more, to meet the C1027 at Mount Eagle. It then continues across to another minor road at Knockbain Wood. The route now turns left to meet the minor road, but in the past there was a fork where the house sits, and a more direct line continued ahead. The section of the forest road to the east of Mount Eagle is less clearly shown on old maps than the rest of the route, perhaps suggesting it is newer, or was less important in the past.

The real history?

This is speculation, but even a casual glance at old maps suggests that part of the route now known as Military Road forms what could have been an important route between the Balblair Ferry across the Cromarty Firth from Invergordon and the Kessock Ferry into Inverness. While the road climbs up and over the steep ridge of the Black Isle, this should not be seen as a hindrance to such a route in the past, and indeed some old maps seem to give the route some importance.

Starting at the pier at Balblair, the route follows the coast round to the Newhall Burn, crossing it as the B9163, and then forks right to climb the B9160. The junction at South Lodge actually follows the straight ahead route, and then the route climbs up and over the hill as described above. At the crossroads, the route continues ahead, dropping steeply down to cross the Killen Road and pass Rhives. A couple of bends wind round a narrow gulley and then the C1027 is met, dropping down to Munlochy.

The C1027 ends on the A832, directly opposite the B9161 junction, with only a realigned junction preventing this being a straight piece of road into the village. The route would then follow the B9161 through Munlochy and Bogbain to reach what is now the A9. This series of straights seems more in keeping with the rest of the route than the meandering road which climbs over Drumsmittal. The current A9 then closely follows the old B9161 route down to North Kessock and so the ferry into Inverness. Without the ferries it would have been 34 miles from Invergordon to Inverness, with the ferries and the route described above to cross the Black Isle, it is nearer 15 miles.

So where does the name 'Military Road' come from? It is conceivable that the army played a part in the construction of the route, but it seems more likely that the name came from Victorian guesswork, thanks to the long straight sections of road so typical of those built by Wade and Caulfeild. With so much of the route having remained in continuous use for the last century, and probably much longer, it is difficult to find any obvious evidence of early construction. However, it is difficult to find any features which could be attributed to Wade or Caulfeild, and these do seem to survive on most of their routes.