Scotland and the North Coast 500
Last year we we’re lucky enough to do a self-drive in the States to Yellowstone and around Wyoming and Colorado. It was without question the trip of a lifetime. One of the successes was finding out that my daughters, now aged 10 & 9, don’t mind road trips. In fact, I’d almost say they enjoyed the excitement of different places and experiences every couple of days. They still talk fondly of the hotels we stayed in and the things we did on the way to and from Yellowstone.
With this in mind, and my wife’s insistence that Scotland is lovely, we headed up the A1 for a two week ‘stay drive’.
We based the trip on two basic principles, 2-3 hours driving maximum and staying wherever had availability at a weeks’ notice! The second of these turned out to be the most decisive given the recent popularity of the North Coast 500, or NC500 to its friends.
The Scottish tourism board have done a fantastic job marketing the drive, along with accompanying app, websites and its own hashtag. Many top ten guides and experts list the NC500 in the same company as Route 66 and Pacific Highway 1 in the states, the Great Ocean road in Australia and the Garden Route in South Africa. All iconic and internationally renowned and the NC500 was the ‘unknown’ one that was always seemed thrown in to make it look like the author wasn’t just quoting the obvious.
First stop was Edinburgh. Not the official start of the drive, that's Inverness, but a city we’ve never visited. We packed in a full day of walking, Royal Mile, Hollyrood Castle, Edinburgh Castle, gardens, famous cafes and Calton Hill viewing point. We then headed north through the Cairngorms National Park to Aviemore.
My daughter Isabelle has made the life choice to be a vet, at the age of 9.. This means every trip must have animal involvement and Aviemore is home to one of the best parks we’ve ever visited – the Highland Wildlife park. With it’s combination of drive through and walk throughs with a wide range of well looked after animals in fantastic enclosures it was a huge hit with the whole family. Aviemore itself is a nice little town with plenty of places for the more adventurous, skiing, walking, kayaking and rope climbs among it’s many highlights. But its set in the foothills of some of Scotland’s most picturesque landscape.
The route up the east coast to the hot spot of John O’Groats took us past the stunning Dunrobin Castle and a beautiful coastal drive, hugging the North Sea as we passed Wick. John O’Groats is much known and fabled, but the surprise wasn’t the photo opportunity by the sign but the walk to the Dunscaby Stacks. A stunning cliff edge walk and a lot prettier than the small village itself!
Unfortunately, our two nights along the far northern coastline were hampered by the weather, with a low lying haar, as the locals call it, settling in for our stay. The beaches though looked superb. Not deterred by a bit of inclement weather our daughters donned their wetsuits and merrily played in the sea as it were Thailand, sort of.
The scenery and driving experience really picked up once we headed down the Western coastline. The roads carved their way through the mountain ranges and Loch’s, we went from driving alongside the coast, to a Loch to a mountain and as the sun came out the B869 was fast becoming one of my favourite roads ever. I’ve been fortunate enough to do a lot of driving in the States through National Parks and some of the best scenery in the world and this little section of road, almost on our doorstep, was as good as any.
Achmelvich Bay and the beach it hides away at the end of a long windy road is a true hidden gem. I’m not a ‘beach’ person generally but even I was impressed with how blue the sea was and the sand was pristine in this tucked away part of Scotland, yes Scotland!
The next stop on the Western side was Loch Poolewe and Gairloch. Both beautiful in location with a nice choice of boat trips. We saw seals on our trip, along with crabs, lobsters and star fish on the glass bottom boat trip. But trips out to try and see Orca’s, dolphins and even sharks are all possible from here. The next Loch along the coastline is the stunning Torridon, home to the Torridon hotel. This recently featured on BBC’s hotels beyond the lobby series. Although we couldn’t stay we did book for dinner. What a place, experience, location and meal.
We finished with a drive over to Loch Ness, no we didn’t, and a trip to the Nessie museum. The town of Fort William, the gateway to Ben Nevis and many other walks, hikes and trails was another lovely place that we weren’t expecting. We choose not to take on Nevis, mainly because the kids baulked at the 7-8 hours of their lives it would consume and opted for a stunning walk alongside the UK’s biggest mountain to a beautiful waterfall. This was our first and only real encounter with the dreaded midges. The thought of midges has been enough to scare many a person off the thought of passing Hadrian’s wall. But we were either lucky or it’s not as bad as people make out. In fairness if you’re camping by a loch at night chances are you’ll meet their wrath. But if you stay in nice hotels a safe distance from water then you should be okay!
The rolling hills and mountains, coupled with the dramatic and everchanging scenery make the driving a joy, the beaches were an unexpected find and the food throughout was of a very high standard. We noticed a lot more references to the local produce and producers and a real pride in restaurants, hotels and café’s using locally sourced food.
We did have to book a lot of things in advance. Partly because of reduced numbers allowed in venues, and it being a busier time of year. But it’s not a bad idea anyway. Most of the small towns and villages only have a handful of places to eat and tours and trips to do so it’s makes sense to plan where possible.
I’ve already added the disclaimer that this was a backup holiday arranged at the last minute. However, for that reason expectations were reasonable, and the trip exceeded every one of them, comfortably. Although I’m sure we will head to far flung places as soon as we’re allowed our trip to Scotland will be fondly remembered, and one day no doubt repeated.
So if you fancy taking on the North Coast 500 get in touch.