North Coast 500: Inverness to Dunrobin Castle

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Inverness

   Inverness is where the North Coast 500 starts and ends, the circuit that has turned the top of Scotland into a bucket-list road, and the sensible traveller treats the city as a place to arrive, wash, shop and sleep before heading out. It sits where the River Ness meets the Moray Firth, and for centuries it was the capital of the Highlands in practice, a market town at the junction of roads running north, west and south. The population of about forty-seven thousand makes it by far the largest settlement for a hundred miles in any direction, and that means all the fuel, tyres, spares and supermarkets you could want.

   Read the complete Inverness write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Inverness is where the day begins. Next is Bealach na Ba.

2. 2. Bealach na Ba

   The name means the Pass of the Cattle, and for centuries that is exactly what it was: a drovers' track up and over the Applecross peninsula, along which cattle were driven to market. The modern road keeps more of that character than you might expect. It climbs from sea level at Tornapress to 626 metres in a tight, steep ascent, much of it single track, with passing places, blind corners and gradients that touch twenty percent on the signs. At the bottom, a warning notice advises that the road is not suitable for learners, large vehicles or caravans, and it is meant seriously.

   Read the complete Bealach na Ba write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Bealach na Ba comes up about 123 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Applecross, mostly downhill.

3. 3. Applecross

   Applecross is the end of a long, slow road, and it is meant to feel that way. The village sits on the shore of the Sound of Raasay, on a sheltered bay of sandy beach and low green fields, with the island of Raasay and the hills of Skye across the water. For centuries it was almost cut off from the rest of Scotland, reachable mainly by sea or by the steep pass of the Bealach na Bà, and the Gaelic name for the place, A' Chomraich, means the sanctuary. That refers to a monastery founded here in 673 by the Irish monk Maelrubha, who came from Bangor and spent decades converting the Pictish north. The site of the old church and graveyard still lies in a quiet, tree-sheltered spot, and carved stones from the early centuries have been found there.

   Read the complete Applecross write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach Applecross. Next is Ullapool.

4. 4. Ullapool

   Ullapool is a white-painted fishing village laid out on a grid, which in the Highlands is as unusual as a roundabout. The British Fisheries Society planned it in 1788 as a base for herring boats on the shore of Loch Broom, and the long straight streets facing the water reflect that planning. Today about fifteen hundred people live here, the harbour is busy with creel boats and the ferry to Stornoway on Lewis, and in summer the quay fills with visitors eating chips from paper and looking out to the hills.

   Read the complete Ullapool write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ullapool, about halfway. Next is Durness.

5. 5. Durness

   Durness is where the road runs out of Britain and starts to feel like the edge of something. It lies on the north coast of Sutherland, a long, thin scatter of crofts around a wide sandy bay, with the Kyle of Durness and its pale beaches below and the flat-topped hills of the interior behind. The A838 arrives from the south by way of Loch Eriboll, a deep sea loch where warships sheltered in the Second World War, and the bare moorland there gives you a sense of how empty this corner is.

   Read the complete Durness write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Durness sits at 370 km, about halfway. Next is John o Groats.

6. 6. John o Groats

   Nothing about John o' Groats is subtle. It sits at the north-eastern tip of mainland Britain, in the flat, wind-scoured county of Caithness, and the whole point of arriving is to stand at the signpost, which tells you that Land's End is about 874 miles away by road. People get here on bicycles, on foot, on motorbikes, in vintage tractors, and almost all of them have a photograph taken by the same sign. The nearest towns are Wick, twenty-three kilometres south, and Thurso, twenty-seven kilometres west, and both have fuel, supermarkets and places to eat, while the village itself has a harbour, a few shops and cafés and a very full car park in summer.

   Read the complete John o Groats write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   John o Groats comes up about 718 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dunrobin Castle.

7. 7. Dunrobin Castle

   Dunrobin Castle stands on the shore of the Moray Firth just north of Golspie, and it is one of the most surprising buildings in Scotland, a fairy-tale pile of turrets and pinnacles that looks more like a French château than a Highland fortress. The seat of the Earls and later Dukes of Sutherland, it began as a medieval keep and was rebuilt in the 1840s in the Scottish baronial style by Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the Houses of Parliament. There are around 189 rooms, formal gardens that descend toward the sea, and a falconry display in summer. The castle even has its own railway halt, though trains stop there only occasionally.

   Read the complete Dunrobin Castle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Dunrobin Castle closes the day.