Path following line of the old military road

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 25 May 2016

This path is the one that is shown leading away on the right in Image It was the earlier line of the A82, and, as the picture shows, it still has traces of road markings on it. I was not particularly interested in the line of the A82, past or present, in itself: what was of greater interest to me was that the former course of the A82 followed (as far as I know) the line of the old military road from Dumbarton to Inveraray. I discuss the former line of the A82 below, but bear in mind that this was probably also the line of the military road. The A82 was re-aligned in the 1960s. In this area, the stretch of road affected was from Image northwards. That point is the beginning of a short track to Nether Ross Farm: just north of there, the A82 formerly ran just to the west of the present-day road; its former course survives there as a farm track, and can be seen on the 1:25000 map. That track swings back to cross the present-day road again at Image That point of crossing is shown in Image, where the current line of the A82 is on the left, and the former line of the road is represented by the Image, on the right. The bridge was built in 1931; part of the near end of the west parapet of that bridge had to be removed to accommodate the new line of the road. The bridge itself stood on the site of an earlier one, which had been built at a cost of £900 in 1769; the 1931 bridge incorporates an inscribed tablet from that earlier bridge, which bears the date, 1769, and the name of the Inspector General of the Military Road, Sir Charles Preston: see Image for that tablet, and Image for further information and some references. The former A82 continued over that bridge (Image) and then along what is currently a road from the Carrick Golf Club and Spa, as far as the point shown in Image The line of the road then continued along the path shown in the present picture (the path, as already mentioned, seems to have retained traces of road markings), to meet and cross the line of the present-day A82 not far ahead, at about Image Beyond that point, the former line of the A82 can still be seen as a layby, to the west of the road; it is shown in Image North of there, the line of the old and the present-day A82 meet up again at about Image

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