Scotland Road Tours - A897 Golval to Helmsdale

Today's road tour takes us on one of the sparsest routes in Britain, the A897. With barely any settlements along the route, the road is generally quiet and mostly single track, although timber trucks can often be seen. The road generally straddles the historical border between Caithness and Sutherland, following the Halladale River south, then along Bannock Burn and then the river Helmsdale for the southern stretch back to the coast. The largest settlement along the route is at the end of it, where the A897 meets the A9 at Helmsdale. From Forsinard southwards we are also joined by the Far North Line of ScotRail. The road was originally designated the B872 in the 1922 road designations, and was then upgraded in 1936 to the A897 as part of a wider shake-up in the road classifications in the region. The only route change in over 100 years is the redirection onto Dunrobin Street rather than Old Caithness Road in Helmsdale, which occurred when the A9 bridge partially bypassed the village in the mid-1970s. Filmed April 2022