B925

Crossgates to Kirkcaldy road

The B925 is a largely rural B-road in south Fife.

It starts at the Crossgates roundabout, part of the Halbeath Junction complex, on the A92 just to the east of the M90. Running beneath this roundabout is the motorway spur which may or may not be the A92(M) but there is no direct access between this and the B925. The route heads east into Crossgates on the windy Dunfermline Road and quickly reaches the B981 (former A90). This is crossed at a staggered crossroads where the northern junction is controlled by traffic lights. The route now follows Springhill Brae and Droverhall Place which leads out past some new houses and into the fields beyond. This section of road has clearly been upgraded at one time as it passes through a number of cuttings as it undulates across the landscape passing a couple of farms.

A small group of wind turbines stands near the entrance to a quarry site and just beyond the A909 is crossed at Beverkae Roundabout. The large MossMorran Chemical Works lies just to the north, making the junction busy at times. The road then climbs steeply over the Pilkham Hills to the south of the works, reaching a summit of around 190m. However, the terrain (or is it landscaping?) means that only the chimneys can be easily seen. A short descent through woodland leads out across fields and a longer descent into Auchtertool. The B925 runs along the traffic calmed Main Street through the village, passing mostly twentieth century housing, and a handful of older buildings. After reaching open country once more it undulates eastwards for a few miles passing between steep hill fields, blocks of woodland and a few cropped fields. There is only one group of buildings on this stretch at Boglily Farm.

The long descent past Boglily Farm leads into woodland where the route passes to the south of the barely visible Raith Lake, one of very few lakes in Scotland, and so enters Kirkcaldy on Boglily Road. It skirts the northern edge of Beveridge Park to reach a roundabout. To the right is the B9157; the other two directions are numbered A910. The B925 turns left for a short multiplex north along the A910, Abbotshall Road, to a mini-roundabout where the A910 forks left and the B925 continues ahead, still as Abbotshall Road. It then goes under the Fife Circle Line before turning left at a former roundabout which has been redesigned as a signalised crossroads. This has the unusual feature of allowing pedestrians to cross diagonally from opposite corners as well as one street at a time.

The route then continues north along Bennochy Road, curving north east onto Victoria Road, with a brief dual-carriageway section at the junction by the station where Bennochy Road turns left. Victoria Road runs roughly parallel to the railway as it curves around the north side of Kirkcaldy town centre and continues out to the suburb of Pathhead. Along the way it crosses two signalised crossroads, becoming Nairn Street and then Millie Street before it ends at a simple T-junction on the A921.

History

The original route of the B925

The B925 was originally a very short route indeed, simply being Nicol Street in Kirkcaldy, connecting the then-A907 to the then-A92. However, sometime before 1932 the A907 route was moved southwards, the old line becoming unclassified, and then around 1935 the B925 was extended westwards along the former A907 to meet the A909. The original section of the B925 lasted at least until the 1970s but has now been renumbered as part of the A910. Around the same time the B925 has taken another chunk of the old A907 in both directions. It has been extended west as far as Crossgates, where it now terminates on the A92 / M90 junction, and extended east through Kirkcaldy as described above. The A907 was curtailed as a result of the new A92 route from Dunfermline to Glenrothes which superseded the A907 as the main route across this part of Fife.

The western end of the B925 has seen some notable upgrades, all carried out in the 1960s while it was still part of the A907. Before leaving Crossgates, the old road can be found curving away to the south at Mossgreen. It then forks left along what is now a no through road, although it can still be walked most of the way back to the B925. Almost immediately another loop can be traced to the south of the current road, and while it was open as a layby until quite recently, it has now been blocked off at the eastern end. The next loop is still open to traffic as the two arms of the Donibristle junction, follows quickly by the only loop to the north past Mossbank Farm. The A907 had continued east to Kirkcaldy along what is now the B9157 since the 1930s, so the remainder of the B925 has not seen such substantial improvements.

The 1922 MOT Road List defines this route as: Link at Kirkcaldy (Nicol Street)