page_title: A59 road
section_title: Yorkshire
hierarchical_section_title: A59 road / Route / Yorkshire
caption_attribution_description: English: A59 road, The Long Causeway
context_page_description: The A59 is a major road in England which is around 109 miles long and runs from Wallasey, Merseyside to York, North Yorkshire. The alignment formed part of the Trunk Roads Act 1936, being then designated as the A59. It is a key route connecting Merseyside at the M53 motorway to Yorkshire, passing through three counties and connecting to various major motorways. The road is a combination of historical routes combined with contemporary roads and a mixture of dual and single carriageway. Sections of the A59 in Yorkshire closely follow the routes of Roman roads, some dating back to the Middle Ages as salt roads, whilst much of the A59 in Merseyside follows Victorian routes which are largely unchanged to the present day.
  Numerous bypasses have been constructed throughout the 20th century, one of the earliest being the Maghull bypass in the early 1930s, particularly where traffic through towns was congested. Portions of the route through Lancashire were proposed to be upgraded to motorway standard during the mid-20th century, latterly being downgraded to significant improvements then ultimately withdrawn from consideration.
context_section_description: From Horton it enters North Yorkshire and goes through West and East Marton before meeting the A56, after which the road passes Broughton. Past Broughton, the road meets the Skipton bypass at its western end, where it overlaps the A65 on its route between Kendal and Leeds, de-merging with the A65 further to the east. The road continues over the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway through a roundabout junction with the B6160 before rising up Beamsley hill. At the top of the hill, the road crosses into the Harrogate district, at which points there is a long narrow, twisting descent, known as Kex Gill, that leads to Blubberhouses village.
  The A59 then runs along the head of Fewston Reservoir and follows the route of a Roman road past the 'golf balls' at Menwith Hill, an RAF station. As Skipton Road, the A59 then declines towards Harrogate passing Kettlesing. Reaching Harrogate as Skipton Road, it meets the A61 Ripon Road for Ripon, Harrogate town centre and Leeds, before continuing through the suburbs of the town as Skipton Road. This section of the A59 is widely considered to be one of the busiest roads in North Yorkshire. Part of this section travels across the Stray, an act-protected tract of grassy land which horseshoes around the town centre. The A59 then turns left at the Empress Roundabout, which is itself on the Stray, towards Starbeck, although traffic travelling towards York is directed onto the A661 Wetherby Road to utilise the A658 Harrogate and Knaresborough Southern Bypass. The A59, however, continues to travel through Starbeck as Knaresborough Road and later High Street, then heads east to Knaresborough, passing through the town centre before heading towards York as York Road.
  The remainder of the route is comparatively flat. From Knaresborough, the A59 meets up with York-directed traffic from Harrogate on the A658, and skirts to the north of Goldsborough towards the A1(M). The A59 heads towards York, travelling close to such places as Nun Monkton, Moor Monkton and Upper Poppleton before finally ending just to the west of the city walls at a zebra crossing at the junction of Bishopthorpe Road and Nunnery Lane, the A1036.
caption: The Long Causeway
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