B9014

This article is about the current B9014 from Dufftown to Keith.
For the former B9014 from Dufftown to Huntly, see B9014 (Dufftown - Huntly).

The B9014 is a medium-length B-road in Banffshire.

Route

Keith

The road starts to the east of Dufftown town centre at a TOTSO with the A941, which crosses the Dullan Water to continue up Glen Fiddich. The B9014, meanwhile, winds northwards, following the Fiddich downstream, past a distillery. It then meets the B975 just before crossing the river at the Bridge of Poolinch, and quickly passes under the preserved Keith & Dufftown Railway, a line which it keeps in close contact with all the way to Keith. Climbing out of Dufftown, through forestry, the road re-crosses the railway and climbs steadily past a few houses and on through forestry. The hillside is steep along here, and there is often a sharp drop on the left down to the railway, which follows the wee burn in the valley floor.

The summit of 226m is reached, and a long layby shows that the road has been realigned. Below the layby, hidden by trees, Loch Park sits a long way down to the left, but never comes into view. The road then starts to descend, escaping from the trees and winding down through fields into the small village of Drummuir. Houses are strung along the northern side of the road, many behind a long layby, looking out across the fields, with a couple of farms seen higher up the hillside. The B9115 then forks right towards Huntly, while the B9014 continues north east, crossing over the infant River Isla and the railway, apparently on the same bridge.

The B9014 is now descending Strathisla, a wide shallow valley of fields rising up to forested ridges. As the river gets larger, the bridges seem to get more acute, over both river and railway. Both are crossed in quick succession through a series of bends at Auchindachy. After a couple more bends, the road opens up along a short straight which ends by crossing the river again at Bridge of Maisley. A short distance beyond, the railway is crossed, with the road turning sharply to follow it on the far side. As road and rail slowly diverge, the road climbs a little over a slight hill to enter Keith. Here the road opens out to follow the long straight and wide Fife Street through Fife Keith. The houses get older, and in some ways grander as the street heads north, and the road slowly opens out into a very broad street, terminating at an even wider junction where it forks to meet the A96 in Regent Square.

History

This route was originally part of the B9009 route from Tomintoul to Keith. However, by the mid 1930s it had been upgraded to be the A920. This route number was subsequently swapped with the original B9014 route between Dufftown and Huntly in the 1970s.