Billed as Scotland’s own Route 66, the recently-inaugurated North Coast 500 is one of the world’s most beautiful drives. It winds its way through the Scottish Highlands from Inverness westward through Wester Ross, up the coast through Sutherland and Caithness, and back down along on the Eastern coast. Along the way, there are any number of places to stop and spend a few days—but getting there is half the fun.
First, a head’s up: the roads. In the UK an “A” road is a main thouroughfare, usually fairly large and two-lane. In the Highlands however, in many areas an “A” road is a single lane that both directions of traffic share. If you’ve never driven on a single-track road before it’s going to take some getting used to, doubly so if you’re used to driving on the right-hand side. There are many passing points and since oncoming traffic is in the same boat you are, friendliness is the rule. Whoever is closest to a passing point, or has more room on the shoulder to pull over, does so. Once you get the handle of driving this way, it quickly becomes second nature. No, you can’t speed, or even go 55 mph on most of it, but why would you want to go fast when you have such fabulous scenery all around you?
Some highlights of the route include the coastal roads of Assynt north of Ullapool, the fishing village of Lochinver, the ruins of Castle Ardvreck, the many whisky distilleries scattered along the way, and of course the rugged beauty of the landscape and the charm of the small towns and villages.
Doing all 500+ miles on a vacation of one or even two weeks might seem a bit daunting, but it’s easy to do just parts of the tour in a few days. (you won’t see everything but hey, you wouldn’t see everything even if you had a year!) Keep an eye on regional events when touring because you never know when a music festival or Highland games might make for some additional travel time—or turn out to be an event you just can’t pass up. Think of the route as a basic outline and hop on and off as you go. Keep your itinerary fairly flexible–though do be sure to reserve hotels and bed-and-breakfasts in advance because they fill up fast, especially during the summer months–because you just might find a spot you don’t want to leave for a few days. Or, who knows, maybe a lifetime!
North Coast 500, www.northcoast500.com