Inverness

The 'Highland Capital' of Inverness is the most northern city in Scotland (excluding the former Cathedral City of Kirkwall. It lies on the south side of the Moray Firth and is the meeting point of the A9, A82 and A96. The city grew up as a natural port at the north end of the Great Glen, and with fertile farmland nearby markets were established to serve the vast rural hinterland. Drove roads were established south, to the markets of Crieff and Falkirk, and later General Wade built the military road south to Crieff and Dunkeld to service Fort George, following the 1715 Jacobite Uprising. Despite this, much of the 1745/6 Uprising was played out in and around Inverness, including the final battle at Culloden just a few miles to the east.

The city continued to prosper, however, and in the early 1800s Thomas Telford started work on the Caledonian Canal through the Great Glen from Fort William, and also a network of Roads leading both north and south from the city. Move forward two hundred years, and Inverness is a rapidly growing city which serves the whole Highland region as both the seat of local government and also a thriving service centre. Tourism too is well catered for, partly due to the proximity of Loch Ness, but also because many foreign visitors will use Inverness Airport to the east of the city, or at least pass through during their visit.

The Kessock Bridge

Of the three main roads which once converged on Inverness, only the A82 still passes through the urban area, the A9 now following a narrow green corridor between Inverness and Culloden to the east as it bypasses the city en route to the Kessock Bridge. The A96 terminates on the A9 at Raigmore Interchange, whilst the A82 from the south must pass around the city centre and through the vast industrial zone to meet the A9 at the Longman Roundabout. The former routes of all three are now a web of B roads in the city centre, although the old A9 route around the Beauly Firth is now the A862.

Inverness is currently in the process of gaining a number of much needed improvements to the road network. The largely new-build B8082 distrinutor road around the southeast of the city is being extended with new bridges across the River Ness and Canal to meet the A82. Proposals to divert the A82 itself this way are looking less certain than they once were, due to the problems of connections to the A9 at Inshes Junction, although improvement plans, along with a new link road to the A96 are also planned here.

A few miles to the north at Tore Roundabout, the A835 diverges from the A9 and heads to Ullapool, from where ferries cross to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. As noted above, the A862 follows the old A9 route around the Beauly Firth to Beauly, Muir of Ord and Dingwall. This also meets the A833, A831 and A832 along the way, serving north Inverness-shire and Easter Ross. To the south east of the city, a number of B roads follow the shore of Loch Ness, and serve the villages in the hills behind. B roads also parallel the A96 to Nairn in the east.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A9	Thurso, Wick, Ullapool (A835)	Wick on older signage, replaced with Thurso
A9	Perth	At over 100 miles this is one of the longest distances between consecutive Primary Destinations. Newtonmore is near the A9 but not signed.
A82	Fort William	via Loch Ness, Loch Oich and Loch Lochy. Links to Kyle via A887 and A87
A96	Aberdeen, Elgin, Nairn, Airport
A835	Ullapool	Via A9 and Kessock Bridge
A862	Beauly, Dingwall	Old A9 around Beauly and Cromarty Firths
B853	Ullapool, Aberdeen, Wick, Perth (A9)
B861	Hilton, Culduthel, Inverarnie
B862	Fort Augustus, Holm Mills, Dores, Foyers	Tourist route along the east side of Loch Ness
B865	Ft William, Perth, Wick (A9), Aberdeen (A96)
B8082	Hilton, Culduthel
B9006	Culloden Moor, Croy, Nairn (B9091)
B9161
B9177	Drumrossie, Perth (A9)	old A9 alignment
E15	Perth	unsigned, uses A9
A88	Beauly, Dingwall	became A9, now A862
A862	Fort Augustus, Holm Mills, Dores, Foyers	now B862
B862
E120	Perth	unsigned, used A9
E120	Aberdeen, Elgin	unsigned, used A96

History

Inverness in 1936

As the map to the left shows, Inverness was a very much smaller place in 1936. Apart from the obvious curiosity of the Airport being located under what is now the Longman Road and Seafield Industrial Estate, the A9 still passed through the city centre, meeting both the A82 and A96 along the way. The crossing of the Inverness Firth was still by the Kessock Ferry, predecessor to the Kessock Bridge, and it is the B9161 which, whilst not indicated, crosses into the city.

After the war, various attempts to relieve traffic in the city centre were made, with a number of (often short lived) B roads being created to provide short cuts or bypass awkward junctions. The A roads, however, remained on their original routes until the opening of the Kessock Bridge, which took the A9 and A96 out of the city completely. In the years that followed, the new route of the A82 was pieced together, finally relieving the centre completely.

These short lived B roads include the B865, B8038, B9145, B9146 and B9164, although there may be more, and some of these are dubious due to possible mapping or signage errors.

Named Junctions

Several junctions in the Inverness area have names, and are listed below. Many of the roundabouts on the B8082 Eastern Distributor Road also have names and will hopefully be listed here in due course!

Name	Classified Road(s)	More Info	Map
Carsegate Roundabout	A862, Carsegate Road		SABRE • Google • geo
Harbour Road Roundabout	A82, Harbour Road	Major bottleneck on the A82 as Harbour Road is the main access point for Inverness' huge industrial area. Also provides a link to Raigmore avoiding the A9.	SABRE • Google • geo
Inshes Junction	A9, B8082, B9006	Complex junction incorporating the Inshes Roundabout, and two spurs to provide access to the A9. Likely to be redeveloped in near future.	SABRE • Google • geo
Longman Roundabout	A9, A82	The northern end of the A82, in sight of the Kessock Bridge just half a mile to the north. Freeeflow links for A82-A9N and A9N-A82.	SABRE • Google • geo
Millburn Roundabout	B865, B9006		SABRE • Google • geo
Raigmore Interchange	A9, A96, B865	This is where the dualled A9, A96 and B865 meet, with the A9 continuing overhead. There are peak-time traffic lights at one of the cities busiest junctions	SABRE • Google • geo
Rose Street Roundabout	A82, Rose Street		SABRE • Google • geo
Shore Street Roundabout	A82, Chapel Street, Grant Street, Shore Street		SABRE • Google • geo
Telford Street Roundabout	A82, A862		SABRE • Google • geo