B9040

This article is about the current B9040 from Burghead to Lossiemouth.
For the former B9040 on Orkney, see B9040 (Orkney).

The B9040 is an important and popular coastal route linking the villages and scattered farms along part of the Moray Coast.

Route

Covesea

Starting on the B9013 at the southern edge of Burghead, the route climbs through a sharp double bend to find a straight and level route east along the coast through Cummingston to Hopeman, where it follows Forsyth Street and East Road. The sea is not always visible, with the ground undulating and trees and buildings often lining the roadside. After passing through the small village of Hopeman, the route kinks further inland, before resuming a line that is roughly parallel to the coast. The B9012 is then met at a T junction, before the route proceeds north eastwards in a dead-straight roller-coaster route past Plewlands. Here a low hill rises between the road and the coast, with the route reaching its summit as it grazes the 50m contour. The descent drops through the scattered settlement of Covesea to the boundary fence of RAF Lossiemouth.

As the coast slowly curves from heading north east to a little south of east, the road follows suit and curves between the edge of the air base and the golf course, across which it passes before reaching the junction with the B9135 on the edge of Lossiemouth. The road has wiggled through the dunes in which the golf course is laid out, but straightens up as it approaches the town. Stotfield Road is initially the coastal road, but as the road and sea converge, other streets lie to the north along the coast and then the B9040 turns inland slightly to pass through this grid-iron town. Following Queen Street, the road passes along the northern edge of the town's spacious square, before dropping slightly to terminate on the A941 not far from that route's terminus at the old harbour, now a popular marina. The view across to the beaches at the mouth of the River Lossie on this final stretch are fantastic! However, one thing to bear in mind is that the nearby air base can make the town a very noisy place indeed.

History

The B9040 came in to existence between 1959 and 1962 to replace a link lost when the airfield was built during the war. Prior to the war, the B9135 had cut across the airfield site, connecting to the B9012 near Duffus. However, this was severed, and subsequently re-routed to the south of Lossiemouth, with the B9040 built along the coast. The route seems to follow a series of pre-existing lanes and tracks, although the winding section across the golf course appears to be a new alignment.

As first classified, the B9040 only filled the gap between the B9135 on the edge of Lossiemouth and the B9012 near Hopeman. However, towards the end of the 20th century, and presumably in order to promote the B9040 as a main coastal route, it acquired the original route of the B9013, most of the western section of the B9012, and the eastern end of the B9135. This led to the current route from the edge of Burghead into the centre of Lossiemouth.