Route

The A701 leaves Dumfries and travels north to meet the A74(M) at Beattock

Beattock

The village of Beattock is located in the southern lowlands of Scotland, and lies within the administrative area of Dumfries and Galloway. It is surrounded by the parish of Kirkpatrick Juxta. It was an important stabling point for horses in the olden days with a coach house at one end of the village...

. It thens joins the A74(M) for a short spell before branching off to the north-east towards Moffat

Moffat

Moffat is a former burgh and spa town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, lying on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. The most notable building in the town is the Moffat House Hotel, designed by John Adam...

 and ultimately Edinburgh.

The road can be an alternative to the A7 or A702 routes to Edinburgh from the A74(M) and M6

M6 motorway

The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...

. The A701 is popular with motorcyclists and passes close to the edge of the Devil's Beef Tub

Devil's Beef Tub

The Devil's Beef Tub is a deep, dramatic hollow in the hills north of the Scottish town of Moffat. The 500-foot deep hollow is formed by four hills, Great Hill , Peat Knowe, Annanhead Hill, and Ericstane Hill. It is one of the two main sources of the River Annan; the other is from the...

. It runs also parallel with the former Talla Railway

Talla Railway

The Talla Railway was a reservoir construction railway in Scotland active from 1897 to 1910. Located in the Scottish Borders, its most substantial engineering feature was the Tweed Viaduct, a 100 foot girder bridge built to carry the railway and water pipeline across the River Tweed at...

 for several miles.

A stretch of the A701, between Penicuik

Penicuik

Penicuik is a burgh and civil parish in Midlothian, Scotland, lying on the west bank of the River North Esk. The town was developed as a planned village in 1770 by Sir James Clerk of Penicuik. It became a burgh in 1867. The town was well known for its paper mills, the last of which closed in 2005....

 and Edinburgh has a proposed bypass to run along side it. This has been contested for many years, as the bypass will form a bottle neck back into the current road, and also will cut through an important wildlife corridor, a woodland which is a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

). There has been a protest site there, campaigning to stop this developent since June 2002.