BRITAIN’S 10 BEST RIDES
The B709 is the second-longest B-road in the UK and starts at Langholm just across the Scottish border. It runs for 60 miles and finishes in Heriot on the edge of the A7 into Edinburgh
NEED TO KNOW
Route Langholm to Heriot via Eskdalemuir and Innerleithen.
Length 58 miles
Roads B709 (and a sliver of A72).
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The B709 winds gently in broad, carving arcs; bends gather pace and collapse into complex combinations, each feeding into the next series in a long, dynamic ribbon of kerb-to-kerb sight-lines, chasing our elusive vanishing point.
This is one of those gorgeously rhythmic rides thus far; the steady drumbeat of the BMW’s big flat twin pulsing the R1300GS along with supernatural serenity, chassis pinning the tyres to the road with an uncanny, gliding poise. It feels like the flying dreams I had when I was a kid – although it was always sunny then; today, Scotland’s finest dull, damp dreich is upon us.
It’s a strange twist of fate that unites the UK’s longest B-road, the B6318 from Heddon-on-the-Wall to Langholm (61 miles), with its second-longest, the B709 running from Langholm up across country to meet the A7 trunk road into Edinburgh (58 miles).
But the B709 is also, literally, a strange twist of fate – it’s a joyful romp of a ride that’s packed with more implausible turns than a Robert Ludlum novel. When you come across a giant golden Buddha floating in a pond just at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, you know you’re in for a trippy ride.
The B709 starts off unassumingly enough in Langholm – the Muckle Toon; a small clump of houses and shops just north of the Anglo-Scottish border, set between low hills. The B-road crosses the River Esk in the town centre and winds away from the buildings under a tree canopy, then opens out to run alongside the Esk through a wide valley. We’re at river level and it’s a wet, boggy landscape at this time of year – numerous burns and rivulets run down from the hills and feed the main river, and the road is permanently damp. Several sections of the B709 have undergone resurfacing work over the past couple of years, closing the road sporadically. Now some of it is racetrack smooth – and some definitely isn’t.
We run through a cluster of houses. A village sign says this is Bentpath – more literalism – then the road hooks a sharp right over a stone bridge, crossing the Esk and leaving it bubbling and boiling now to our left. The road climbs a fraction, still windin
