In addition to this page check out our video here and our travel blog for this trip here
When to go?
We enjoy doing our Scottish holidays in the off-season, partly because we are often lucky with the weather, and partly because it is quiet. To be honest, we have found that there isn’t really a “best time” to holiday in Scotland. We have experienced beautifully crisp sunny days in winter and rain summer, and have found November to March often works out well for us.
For the North Coast 500 (NC500) we decided on autumn, partly because that’s just how it worked out (we wanted an autumn holiday, but didn’t want to go abroad) and partly because it gave us a chance to enjoy the beautiful autumn foliage en route through Perthshire between Glasgow & Inverness. The Orkney add-on happened as it was “on our bucket list”, we had plenty annual leave to use up and it fitted in well with our NC500 route.
Planning
Our planning stage included a lot of research “googling” to see the best places to visit & the best hikes to do, plus to find out what campsites were still open (very few!) and what other accommodation was available. We had done a little wild camping already in October, and as we had the “bug” we planned to camp for part of this trip (in campsites though), however we ended up with only one night camping. As it’s a road trip and we were mostly spending just one night in each place, whether we did the hikes we had planned was going to be subject to the weather (we had built in a little bit of “contingency” but not much). I’m pleased to say that we got lucky! However, at any time of year, it is always good to build in a little bit of contingency – just in case; and certain areas / places are definitely worth spending 2 or 3 nights if you have time.
We decided to do the NC500 from East to West (anticlockwise). This was mainly because that fitted in with the availability of the accommodation we wanted to stay at in Orkney. However, I would say that worked out well, as (in our opinion) the scenery as you travel in this direction just keeps getting better & better.
As I write, I shall add links to the places we stayed and hikes that we did in case they are of interest. Being off-season accommodation wasn’t hard to come by (apart from campsites, most of which were closed), although we did book much of it 2-4 months in advance (we always like to be organised, especially if we see somewhere we really like!)
So below is a write up on our trip – what we did, where we stayed, some photos, our recommendations etc…
Our Trip – NC500
We got a great deal for the Killin Hotel through 5pm‘s website – £79 plus a £15 Friday night supplement for dinner (2 courses from the main menu), bed & breakfast. It was a quirky, but lovely old hotel, very comfortable with great food & drinks and a nice log fire in the bar area. The deal we bought was excellent value and we would highly recommend it. (I have not put a link to the actual deal as the deals change frequently, although I have seen this one come up often).
Killin is a small town at the western head of Loch Tay, an area we visit often, being a fairly short drive from Glasgow (1.5 hours). The (occasionally spectacular) Falls of Dochart are in the town itself, and for keen hillwalkers a short drive takes you to Ben Lawers and Ptarmigan Ridge, a couple of great hill walks we have done in the past. Even if you are not a hillwalker, the drive through the Ben Lawers Nature Reserve and on to Glen Lyon (particularly spectacular in autumn with it’s foliage) is a stunning drive.
Coming out of Glen Lyon we took the stunning Schiehallion road (Schiehallion is another very popular hill walk) on our way to Inverness. If you have time, a quick side trip to Kinloch Rannoch on a clear day, will give you views over to the end of the loch and the mountains of Glencoe.
Continuing cross country with more beautiful views & foliage we eventually joined the A9 main road to Inverness, where we had bought another deal (from itison) for Jury’s Inn. This deal cost £65 and included bed, breakfast & afternoon tea with leisure access and early check-in / late check-out (the latter we didn’t take advantage of due to the distances we were covering). The room and leisure facilities were great, the food disappointing, but for £65 it was a great deal and we would most definitely recommend a stay at this price.
We left Inverness the next morning quite early as we had a fair bit of driving and stops to do. Unfortunately the morning that we left, the weather wasn’t very kind to us (heavy rain), so we didn’t get to do one of the walks we had planned (Fairy Glen on the “Black Isle”, which incidentally isn’t an island, just a peninsula, a short side trip off the main NC500 route). It also wasn’t good timing for dolphin spotting at Chanonry Point, as it was high tide, and the best time for seeing the dolphins is around an hour after low tide just as the tide starts to come in again and the dolphins start to chase the fish.
As we were driving out from the Black Isle back towards the main NC500 route, the rain eased off a bit, and we stopped off for a short walk at the Clootie Woods & Well, where even today there continues a rather strange ancient tradition, where pilgrims would come and make offerings, usually in the hope of having an illness cured. You will see loads of cloth and clothing (etc) hanging off the trees and bushes! However, as it had got quite out of hand, there was a “clean up” in progress while we were visiting. Read more about this tradition & area here.
Continuing up the East coast, the weather by now stayed mainly dry, with just a few showers, some sunny spells and lots of rainbows! Our stops along the way included Dunrobin Castle (you can walk to the beach for an excellent view of the castle without having to pay to go in, so unless you actually want a look inside, this is your best option). Use their car park, it is free, and take the path down past the castle grounds to the beach. Then on to Brora beach, where it was wild and windy. However the sun was out, as was a lovely rainbow, that stayed out for the duration of our stroll along there.
The Whaligoe Steps were our next planned stop – they are not easy to find as they are not signposted, but they are worth the effort. The road to them is exactly opposite the sign for the Cairn of Get. Over 300 steps take you from the cliff top to the naturally formed harbour between two sea cliffs, with a rocky beach. This was once a landing place for fishing boats and the steps were then used by fisherwomen to haul up the creels of herring. The scenery as you walk down, and even more so once you reach the bottom, is really quite dramatic. You may read on other webpages that you have to be really careful to use the steps, but they are currently under repair and we felt perfectly safe on them. An extra bonus was the mother seal and pup that were there, the mother bobbing about in the sea keeping watch on her pup, and the pup lying on the rocks on the beach.
Our final stop before heading to Gills Bay for the Orkney ferry, was Duncansby Sea Stacks. About 15 mins walk from the parking area, they are quite dramatic, but as you can see from our photo, the light was too low to get a good picture.
Incidentally, on our original plan, we were going to split up the drive up the east coast into 2 days, but as there had been some recent ferry disruption, we decided to head over to Orkney a day early, just in case. (We had booked a place with a hot tub and didn’t want to lose out on a night there should there be any more ferry cancellations!)
This turned out fine for us, as we had time to do everything we wanted to, however it is worth considering taking 2 days should you (for example) wish to also visit one of the distilleries, or perhaps have a game of golf at the famous Royal Dornoch Golf Club.
Our Trip – Mainland Ornkey (NC500 to be continued after….)
The ferry over to Orkney went fine and without any delays. The Pentland Firth has a reputation for being a rough crossing, but we were fine – no sick bags required!
For our first (and extra) night, we were going to camp, but the campsite at Kirkwall had some cheap pods for £35 complete with beds and electricity, so it was hardly worth saving a few pounds by putting up our tent. It was cosy and warm, though the double sofa bed was pretty lumpy, so we placed 2 mattresses from the other “proper” beds over it (both pods sleep 5 or 6; the “proper” beds are singles or bunks.)
For the next 5 nights, we stayed at the best place in the whole trip, which we highly recommend! It is called Grukalty self catering and is in Birsay, a tiny little village in the North of Mainland Orkney. The house is beautiful & so comfortable, but the big selling point for us was the hot tub! It is hard to think of anything we enjoy more, especially during the long dark nights, than soaking outdoors in a hot tub, sipping some fizz and watching the stars – we even “saw” a little bit of aurora (Northern lights) but only through the camera lens.
During our time on Orkney, we managed to do quite a lot. The weather was mostly kind to us, although our last full day was starting to get windy and wet, and by the day we left it had got quite wild and all the Pentland ferries got cancelled! Luckily the Northland ferries still ran, so we managed to get back with them.
Orkney is known for having some of the best-preserved prehistoric sites in Europe, so if that is of interest to you, you will have plenty of them to visit! There are also many walks, often a little scary beside sheer cliffs; and for us we also enjoyed some canoeing in our inflatable double canoe that we had brought with us.
If you can, pick up the great information / attraction leaflets from the tourist office- one for West Mainland and one for East Mainland. Here is a little about the places we visited and walks & canoeing that we did (in no particular order)…
Archaeological / Historic – in Kirkwall we had a look in St Magnus Cathedral and the ruins of the Bishops & Earls Palaces, not to mention a short stroll around the town and harbour.
Nearer to Birsay, we also visited the Orkney Brewery (which was formerly a Victorian schoolhouse), and just outside Kirkwall, the Highland Park whiskey distillery founded in 1798. Speaking of drinks, another somewhat less historic place we visited was the Orkney Wine Company, who make fruit wines, liqueurs and spirits. They are located next to the Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm. The Roman Catholic chapel was constructed by Italian POWs during the Second World War.
In Birsay itself is the Earl’s Palace and St Magnus’ Church; and the Brough of Birsay (an uninhabited small island accessible only at low tide) features the remains of Pictish, Norse and later settlements around Birsay Bay.
Fairly close to the Orkney Brewery, is Skara Brae & Skaill House (the latter is a historic manor house – one entry fee includes both). Skara Brae is possibly the main archaeological attraction on mainland Orkney. Skara Brae is a Neolithic village which is around 5000 years old! It was found after it started to become unearthed following a great storm in 1850.
On the east coast we visited the Broch of Gurness, one of Orkney’s best preserved brochs.
The Churchill Barriers makes for a scenic spot to take photos of the ship wreck. We also decided it was a nice spot to get the canoe out for a short paddle.
Back on the West Mainland is the historic Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness.
Walks / Wildlife – Yesnaby coastal walk and sea stack – we just did a short (and very muddy) walk of perhaps a mile each way to view the quite spectacular sea stack and cliffs.
On East Mainland we went to Deerness to walk to both the Gloup (a collapsed sea cave separated from the sea by a land bridge) and Mull Head Reserve, with amazing coastal scenery. For more information click here.
Windwick Bay, also on East Mainland, which I had read was a great spot to see seal pups from October to December, was well worth a stop. We saw lots of seals and pups, and the scenery was great too. We stopped at the small parking bay, which overlooked the beach where the seals and pups were.
Canoeing – In the end our only canoeing spot was by the Churchill Barriers, which were nice & sheltered, and where we canoed over to take a closer look at the shipwreck.
We had hoped to canoe at Aikerness beach (near the Broch of Gurness), however on the day we went to do that (all suited up in our wetsuits) it was far to windy for it to be safe for novices like us. We think on a calmer day that it would be a lovely spot to canoe.
Our Trip – continuing on the NC500
As mentioned earlier, we almost didn’t get to leave Orkney as planned due to all the Pentland ferries being cancelled. However, luckily for us the Northlink ferries ended up running (they depart and arrive in different places, so the wind and tides weren’t against them as much, although their salings also were “under review” for a while). We were too late for the 9am one, but we got booked on the 4.45pm one and killed the time in between with a stroll round Stromness (a short stroll as it was raining heavily), a fish & chips lunch and a drink in one of the local pubs. We found it remarkable how smooth the crossing was. Also, being a bigger ferry, it was much plusher. We would highly recommend paying the £7.50pp for the Magnus Lounge, which was very comfortable and stylish, with free drinks (soft, alcoholic and teas & coffees) and a range of snacks such as fruit, crisps, Orkney fudge, biscuits, scones, pastries etc. We were surprised to find only about 4 other people using the lounge!
Our original plan had been to arrive in daylight and spend some time on the short drive between Gill’s Bay and Dunnet Bay, maybe take the canoe out in the bay weather permitting. Of course, as it happened we arrived in the dark, and it certainly wouldn’t have been weather for canoeing anyway! Northlink ferries dock at Stromness, so we had just a little bit of backtracking to do on the NC500 to get to Dunnet Bay. We also missed that short 8 miles between Gill’s Bay and Dunnet Bay, but we did go back the next day to look around Dunnet Head.
We stayed in a beautiful suite at Dunnet Bay Escapes, and it is worth mentioning that on corresponding with the owners when we thought we might not make it until the day after, they were very sympathetic and willing to try to accommodate us should that have happened. Our day ended with a nice evening chilling out in our suite. It was a shame we arrived so late, as they have a hot tub available for guests, but with our late arrival we decided to reluctantly give it a miss.
Breakfast at the B&B was superb, with lots of choice. Paul had a full English / Scottish and I had smoked salmon & mashed avocado on sourdough toast – yum! Sheila even accommodated my strange request to “cook” the smoked salmon!
On checking out, we got speaking to another couple who were travelling the opposite direction to us, and who had camped in Durness the night before, which had been our plan for Durness. Given that the campsite is high on a hill overlooking the beach, it was still gusting 40+mph winds and that the couple said their tent had been blown down in the night, we decided to book something more “solid” instead! It worked out well, as the campsite had closed all its facilities anyway, and only water and electric hook-ups were available to campers (at a reduced price).
Instead we spent a lovely evening in one of the self catering Shepherd’s Huts at Aiden House B&B. These were truly charming, beautifully furnished, cosy, comfy and super well equipped. We would most highly recommend them! For anyone who prefers to camp, the campsite that we planned to overnight at is at Sango Sands, certainly a stunning view, but without a doubt we made the right choice on this occasion!
The drive along the north coast from Dunnet bay to Durness was stunning, but we didn’t really see it at it’s best, as it was still quite overcast with the odd shower. Our photos don’t do it justice. We would love to see that stretch one day in sunny weather. Just before arriving in Durness, we went in to the Smoo Cave, which is a large combined sea & freshwater cave reached by descending several steps.
As we originally planned a 2 night camp in Durness, and we knew a few days before that the campsite’s facilities were closed, we had decided to book an extra night in Lochinver and just stay for one night in Durness. That now gave us a 3 night stay in Lochinver (with hot tub!) and a bit of contingency should we need it, if the weather didn’t cooperate for our hiking and canoeing plans.
Before continuing on the NC500, we went to Balnakeil beach, probably the most stunning beach in Durness, and one of the most beautiful beaches we have seen anywhere. It was still gorgeous even in the overcast weather, and thankfully it was a bit more sheltered, so Paul managed to get some drone footage. Then a couple of miles back along the coast to have a wee look at Sango Sands, to see what we missed by not camping there. It was lovely, but jeez oh, the wind! Not only would our tent not have stood up to it, it’s almost certain we wouldn’t have been able to put it up anyway!
Driving between Durness & Lochinver is nothing short of spectacular, even in “grey” weather. We did a short detour to Kinlochbervie and Oldshoremore beach – wow! Stunning drive and beautiful secluded beach. The famous Sandwood Bay is not far from here, the car park was a couple of miles further on. However, to reach Sandwood Bay it is around a 4 mile walk in and out, you can’t drive any closer. As the weather was pretty rough still, we were more than happy to just leave after seeing Oldshoremore beach.
Nearer to our destination, we took the route via Drumbeg (the “Drumbeg loop”), a very stunning route on a single track road, with some stunning sea views and then some beautiful beaches as you near Lochinver.
Finally, arriving in Lochinver (well Baddidarroch to be precise, which is just next to Lochinver) at our “Hideaway” where we were spending the next 3 nights.
Whilst we would recommend it, if you are staying 3 nights or more (remember we were originally only staying for 2 nights), I would also recommend a look at these places, two of them are almost next door to the Hideaway, but much more spacious (especially if you plan to self cater) and they also have hot tubs and uninterrupted lochside views. I believe they are a 3 night minimum stay. However just double check, there was something on their website about hot tub hire, it looks like perhaps you pay extra if you wish to use it? We can vouch that the hot tub use is included at the Hideaway (though on our first night it took till about 10.30pm to heat up enough to use it). Anyway, enough about accommodation recommendations, here’s what we did while we stayed in Lochinver…
The Bone Caves – after reading about this walk, I had hoped we would get favourable weather to be able to do it. Inside the “Bone Caves” were found the bones of bears, reindeer, wolves, Arctic fox, lynx etc that once roamed these lands, the bones are thousands of years old, and even a fragment of a polar bear’s skull was found!
The walk is relatively easy, though the ground can be very muddy and uneven, but there is little physical effort involved. It took is about 2 hours including exploring the caves, photo stops and a quite drone flight. The car park for this walk is about 4.5kms after Inchnadamph.
Ardveck Castle – this ruined castle was built in the 15th century by the Macleod clan. It stands on a stunning spot on the banks of Loch Assynt.
Lochinver Harbour – the harbour area of Lochinver looked so calm and peaceful that we decided to see if the harbour staff would allow us to launch our inflatable canoe from where the yachts were berthed. We were told this was no problem, so we managed a lovely little paddle around the harbour area without even getting our feet wet!
Lochinver sunrises – just wow!
Achmelvich, Clachtoll and Clashnessie beaches – the drive to and from these beaches is stunning.
Achmelvich & Clachtoll are (in our opinion) the most stunning of the three. Achmelvich has a large bay, soft white sand beaches, and is perfect for a canoe paddle.
At Achmelvich you can also hunt for the Hermit’s Castle.
Clachtoll features the “split rock” and is also a great spot for sunset.
Lochinver Larder – famous for it’s pies, this is a “must do” for most people who visit. We were pretty impressed, however they are not cheap!
Stac Pollaidh hike – this is a fabulous hike, the views are absolutely stunning, and it’s fairly short (that said we only went as far as the “saddle” as the wind was very strong on the top). It took us 2 hours 45 minutes, with lots of photo stops. It is equally accessible from both Lochinver and Ullapool, so we did this hike (as planned – the weather was on our side) on our way from Lochinver to Ullapool. This worked out well, as the drive between these two places is pretty short (and very scenic!)
In Ullapool we had booked a B&B just outside of town. It’s up a steep hill called the Braes, with stunning views over to Loch Broom.
We booked this through Airbnb and we highly recommend it! Rosie, who runs the B&B (with her partner Ben, who was abroad at the time) was very friendly, and put out the most superb breakfast in the morning! She also allowed us to bring back a “fish supper” for dinner and had set up her dining table with candles and wine glasses etc for us.
Driving from Ullapool to Aultbea (our next overnight stop) was stunning – it was a beautiful sunny day and we passed by so many mountains & beaches. Just after Braemore Junction we stopped at Corrieshalloch Gorge. The gorge is approximately 1.5 kms long and 60 metres deep. There is a scary suspension bridge that goes over the gorge and a great viewing platform where you can view the 46 metre-high Falls of Measach. There is also a nice walk through the forest and to the Loch Broom viewpoint.
Once again, we checked into wonderful accommodation, this one a self catering apartment called Taighali, superb value and extremely well equipped, comfortable & clean. There was a good and very calm bay nearby (at Mellon Charles beach) where we took the canoe out for a short sunset paddle.
The next day we continued on the NC500 to Applecross, a stunning drive through the Torridon mountains and along the Applecross Peninsula (we saved the (in)famous Bealach Na Ba road for the following day). We had hoped to do another short canoe paddle either on Loch Maree or one of the bays, but it was quite windy and therefore a bit choppy on the water, so we decided against this.
We made a short stop at Victoria Falls en route, they were nice but looking into the sun, so not great for a photo, but still worth a stop. On the rest of the drive the scenery just got more spectacular, especially the closer we got to Torridon and from there to Sheildag and on via the coastal route to Applecross village.
We had booked our stay in Hartfield House, once owned (or leased?) by Fairbridge Drake, which in a kind of roundabout way is how we met. A long story, but we just wanted to return there for nostalgic reasons, we both have many great memories from that time back in the late 1980’s. Now a backpacker hostel, it offers double rooms as well as bunk rooms, full kitchen facilities and a nice lounge.
The Applecross Inn serve a great dinner, so we headed out for a meal rather than self cater. It’s a short drive or around a half hour walk from Hartfield House (which is just outside of the village).
On our way there we saw a stag right by the loch side with the Cuillins on Skye in the background – beautiful!
There were only 5 of us staying in Hartfield House and we spent the evening chatting to the other guests in the lounge. It was a nice change to have some company, as we have mostly been in our “own place” on this trip.
The NC500 finishes back in Inverness. From there we continued on to Loch Morlich (near Aviemore) to break up our journey home. Once again the weather was superb, and we got some great views finishing our journey, especially heading over the Bealach Na Ba mountain road, with its hairpin bends, and stunning view over to Skye from the summit.
We made a few more photo stops en route and also stopped to check out Rogie Falls.
Arriving at Loch Morlich campsite, there was a little snow in places, and it was bloody cold! However, we still took our canoe out for a quick paddle on the loch. As we were trying to keep our feet dry this time, we took it in to shallow water without the fin and attempted to get on via a large flattish boulder, as there were no jetties to use. Well, our feet stayed dry, but steering it without the fin was nothing short of hilarious! We were spinning around in circles, and the wind has its own idea about where we were going!
On returning to the campsite, we finished setting up inside our tent, and were devastated to find that our electric blanket was caput! We had it all so well planned out for a cosy night, with the electric hook up to run our small fan heater and electric blanket… talk about best laid plans! So we popped into the Pine Martin bar / restaurant next to the campsite for dinner (and some heat!) rather than cook. They sell hot water bottles, so we decided it would be wise to buy one, and after all, we can always use it when we wild camp.
To finish our trip, after the NC500, we headed home via the A9 with a short stop in Pitlochry, which was looking spectacular with full autumn foliage, a place we will definitely like to visit for a long weekend next autumn.
We hope this page has been helpful and interesting to anyone reading and / or planning an NC500 road trip. Even though it was off-season, most of our accommodation was booked in advance, although we doubt there would be much of a problem getting somewhere last minute. Most campsites closed at the end of September or at some point in October. Sango Sands had said they would still be open at the beginning of November, but they obviously weren’t that busy and decided it wasn’t worth staying open. At least you can still stay there (for £9 – current rate) with water and electric, but toilets are outside the campsite next to the Spar shop, so in a tent it’s not really ideal. Wild camping is supposed to be fairly easy in Scotland, but we can’t recommend spots on the NC500, as we didn’t do this. People we talked to said the NC500 route is VERY busy in summer and therefore at that time we would recommend early booking of accommodation, including campsites (if they take reservations).
For detailed information on the hikes we did (and any others you may be interested in) use our links to the Walk Highlands website, their walk descriptions and route details are usually very good.
Fuel is cheapest anywhere you can find a Asda or Tesco with a fuel station, there were a few on the east / north coast and in Kirkwall in Orkney, but we didn’t find any on the west coast.
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