A guide to our itinerary

Before any trip, we do extensive research on places to see and places to eat. We write up what we actually did (only if we recommend it). We’ll also throw in the bonus suggestions of things we didn’t get around to doing (but wanted to).

Usually our trips include a mix of history, culture and nature, and when in Scotland, Golf (Joe is Golf mad!)

We like a slower pace of travel these days but fear not if you’re a jam-packed traveller – include our bonus suggestions and you’ll be sorted.

We mainly ate in the van but if there was a local speciality food stop we made sure we included it!

We’ve even included shower stops!

Which way around should I do the NC500?

You can do it either way! We preferred to do it East to West as we’d heard the ‘best’ views are on the West coast so wanted to build up to that.

Best time of year to do the NC50

Scotland’s weather is quite unpredictable so that part doesn’t matter too much! Typically a lot of campsites and restaurants etc on the route close November – Mid March. We went in June and got really good weather and loved it.

Day light hours are also much longer in the summer which gives you more time to see things.

Late July and August will of course be much busier due to summer holidays.

How many nights do I need to do the NC500?

We spent 5 nights on the route but we could have easily spent loads more. There is tonnes to see, and lots of hikes to be had. I’d say if you’re wanting to do the whole route (and see things) 4/5 nights is a minimum. Any less and you’re best considering just doing part of the route.

Factor in your time travelling to and from the route as it takes a good day to get up there and visa versa as it’s way further than you think. Our total trip was 7 nights (5 on the NC500). The official start is in Inverness, and even if you’re in the South of Scotland on day 1 you need to factor in a whole day to drive up to Inverness.

Wild Camping

Our itinerary has lots of wild camping spots in. This is legal in Scotland but please make sure you camp responsibly. Leave no trace and only stay in each spot for one night.

Take all your litter with you and if your van doesn’t have a toilet, make sure you dig a deep enough hole 30 meters or more away from water sources. Don’t bury your toilet paper, take that with you and dispose of it later.

We didn’t have to do this thankfully. We found the route was well equipt with public toilets etc.

Signal can be sketchy up there so ensure you’ve downloaded offline maps. We swear by maps.me (but google maps offline also works). Pin the key places in our itinerary on your offline map and you’re good to go!

Day 1 – Getting to Dornoch

The drive up through Scotland is stunning before you even get to the actual NC500, giving you a taste of what you can expect on the loop.

We took a whole day to travel up from Blackpool to Dornoch. Joe was booked on a twilight round of golf at Royal Dornoch (which is a huge deal apparently!).

Day one was made up of making sure we made the round of golf, but if your partner’s life doesn’t revolve around golf then be sure to stop along the way at these key sights.

📍Chanonry Point – see if you can spot any Dolphins here. Apparently, they are best seen during rising tide, fingers crossed you’re lucky!

📍Shandwick Stone – a 3-meter-high stone carved with Pictish symbols thought to date back to around 780

⛳Twilight Round at Royal Dornoch

If you’re as into your golf as Joe, you’ll know Royal Dornoch is a big deal. He played a round on the Championship course (birthday gift!).

Don’t have a birthday coinciding with your trip? Stay tuned because he also played another course up on the NC500 that was one of his favourites of all time for a fraction of the cost.

Golfing girlfriends I have your back, whilst he played I enjoyed a gorgeous coastal walk around the perimeter of the course.

Someone at the club told him of a unique wild camping spot that would mean we woke up to a seal colony!

🛏️Seal Colony wild camping stop

You’ll find this spot near Skelbo Castle on Loch Fleet. Its exact coordinates are 57.93101,-4.039671 so if you type that into maps.me or google you’ll get it. It’s a small lay-by, and when we visited there was only one other van so we had plenty of space and privacy.

Day 2 – Dornoch – John O’ Groats

Drive – approx 15 mins

📍Carn Liath

Visit Carn Liath to see an example of a Broch. Broch’s were tall, circular structures that housed stone houses and outbuildings (for things like storage). They are thought to date around 2000 years ago. It stands at 3m currently, but used to stand three times as tall.

There are helpful information boards within the site, and original stairs to gain access to what would have been upper floors.

Definitely worth a quick pit stop! It’s a small but interesting site and didn’t take us more than half an hour to see.

Drive – approx 1 hour

📍Whaligo Steps

Whaligo steps are a must-see. The landscape is so dramatic!

There is also history to be learned here as the 365 steps were man-made to make a harbour here and were used by fisherwomen to bring herring up to sell in the nearby town, Wick.

There’s a small car park at the top of the steps, after a row of houses. We were lucky enough that one of the men living in the houses came out with some pictures and taught us loads about the steps, their history, and some personal family stories. This helped us have much more context of what to look out for when we went down such as where to spot chimneys, and other tools used to haul boats in etc. Hopefully, he’s there when you visit!

You can see the steps on the bottom picture above, there are lots of them and some were a bit sketchy but there is a natural edge to hold onto.

Drive approx 30 mins

We continued to drive up the coast and planned to stay right near Duncansby Stacks as we heard sunset/sunrise is an epic time to see the standing rocks. We jigged around our plans when we saw a perfect camping spot (in someones garden no less!).

🛏️Someones garden with epic views! Along the route you’ll see a house to the right with a sign for £5 car parking at the back of the house. The views are definitely worth the small fee!

Exact coordinates 58.5441,-3.098184. Staying on the main route you’ll pass Hawkhill road to the left (do not go down it), and the house is just a bit further up on the right. If you hit a left turn for Stroupster Road, you’ve gone too far. If you don’t see a sign between these two roads assume it’s no longer a thing! (and let us know for the comments please!).

There is a chance to see Orca Whales at this spot! The owner saw some around 11pm and didn’t know whether we were asleep in the van or not so didn’t disturb us – gutted! If you want to be disturbed let her know!

Day 3 – John O’ Groats – Durness

📍John O’Groats

A small village on the most North Eastern tip of Scotland. There is of course the infamous sign to snap a picture of or with but don’t miss looking around the area too.

Some interesting information boards taught us that the village is named after John Groat, a merchant who was granted permission by the King of Scotland to set up a ferry to the Orkney Islands. His business was a successful one and he had an interesting way of dealing with familial disputes when he learned that 7 family members were all wanting to take over the business on his passing.

Find out more on the information boards in front of the 8-sided building.

We were surprised to find there’s quite a few people living up there. We had a chat with the lady at the butty van who had lived there most of her life, apparently, housing costs are rising for the locals as people are buying holiday homes up there.

📍Duncansby Stacks

A short drive to Duncansby lighthouse leads to the path to Duncansby stacks. This is actually the most North Eastern nip of Scotland, but John O Groats is still a fun visit.

From the car park, follow the grassy track towards the stacks. They are only a mile away but you can walk as long or as little as you like until you are happy with the view, then simply turn back the way you came.

Drive approx 2 hours 30 mins

Continue on the NC500 driving on the northern part of the route, stopping at any lay-bys on the way for views.

📍Wild swim at Traigh Allt Chailgeag

Stop for a picnic stop near Traigh Allt Chailgeag and a wild swim. The water was cold to say the least but it was a refreshing dip and the beach is stunning.

When you’re in a van a wild swim counts as a shower too (doesn’t it?) so it’s a double whammy!

Most of today’s stops are nearby Durness and pretty close together on the coast.

📍Heritage walk at Ceannabeinne Ruins

This short trail takes you through an abandoned village where its inhabitants were tragically forced to leave their homes during the Highland Clearances. People were displaced to make space for farming often in awful circumstances. Around 50 people lived in the village and were given just 48 hours’ notice to leave their homes in 1841.

The trail has information boards to explain what the ruins used to be, and detail the interesting history of this village. The walk is short at just 1km out and back, and has incredible views of the coast

📍Smoo Cave

It’s free to visit the cave and walk inside.

They also offer tours priced at £15 which covers the natural and human history of the cave. Tours also include going on a boat. We (I) chickened out of the tour because the way down to the boat looked sketchy (but I’m sure it isn’t!). Tours run from April – end of October.

📍A round at Durness Golf Course

Joe was dying to play the most Northern golf course in the UK. Its set right on the coast and has stunning views. It’s a 9-holer so you can play 2x for a full round. When the clubhouse is not manned, there is an honesty box in operation.

🛏️We planned to pay for a pitch at Sango Sands Campsite however stumbled across a smaller site with a killer view. There was an honesty box and a pitch right on the coast. Search 58.554252,-4.700581 and you should find it (it’s between the Ceannabeinne ruins and Smoo cave so you’ll have to backtrack slightly.

Day 4 – Durness – Stac Pollaidh

☕The ultimate hot chocolate at Cocoa Mountain

Day 4 begins with one of the best hot chocolates you’ll likely ever try!

📍Visit Balnakeil Craft Village

Cocoa Mountain is on the edge of Balnakeil Craft Village so head there afterwards to bag some unique souveniers. Within the craft village there are seriously skilled artists in a range of crafts such as painting, wood work, glass, and ceramics. We had a great chat with the artist at the studio/barbers who makes thought-provoking art out of recycled materials he finds out and about.

Drive – approx 1 hour and a half

📍Wild Swim at Achmelvich Beach

This beach was the most stunning one we visited on the NC500. We never use filters or edit our photos so what you see is what you get!

There’s a car park to the right of this photo connected by a small trail. We parked up and came down to the beach for a swim. The water was so clear (and cold! but it was worth braving it!).

The coast around here is gorgeous to walk on and explore too with views of nearby cliffs. They had serious horcrux cave vibes for all you Harry Potter fans.

📍Walk the coast to spot Hermits Castle

Whilst there is no clear trail to get to Hermits Castle from the beach, if you’ve got maps.me or google maps open you’ll get a sense of the general direction. We were intrigued by the story of Hermits Castle so we felt it was a must see!

On these cliffs, lies the ‘smallest castle in Europe’. We expected given this, that it would be small but it is TINY.

There is some mystery around this little building but generally the story goes that an architect from Norwich decided to build himself a small shelter here in 1950. It’s said it took him 6 months and he brought all the materials here by boat. After all this hard work, people reckon he only spent the weekend here and then never returned.

If you know what you’re looking for, you’ll find this mysterious structure and can even go inside when you get there. Granted it smelt like a toilet (which was an awful shame). Take a deep breath and go inside, and you’ll see a bed shelf and a fireplace.

From the beach, it’s only around 100 metres away so you don’t need to build lots of time in to walk to it, it just takes a little looking for.

Drive – approx 15 mins

🍴Get a pie at Lochinver Larder

These pies were seriously good! They’ve been going since 1986 and make both traditional pies, and also some unique twists.

🚿Good shower stop whilst you’re in Lochinver. Assynt Leisure let us use their showers for free (or next to nothing)

Drive – approx 40 mins

📍Walk at Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve

This is the spot two continents collided millions of years ago (Scotland used to be attached to America!).

You can learn all about it in the ‘rock room’ just a short walk from the car park. From here, there are three short trails to chose from to explore the area and learn about the geology.

Quarry Trail : Takes just 20 mins

Thrust Trail : Takes just 30 mins

Crag Top Trail : Takes 1 hour

Definitely worth a stop if you’re at all interested in geology, and a great stop for kids too. Even if you’re not interested in this type of stuff, the views are gorgeous too.

🛏️Car Park opposite Stac Pollaidh

Our itinerary includes a hike around Stac Pollaidh in the morning so we camped here the night before to allow an early start.

This spot turned out perfectly because it was also visited by wild deer! We could see them in the trees right outside our van window.

Day 5 – Stac Pollaidh – Applecross

📍Stac Pollaidh Hike

There are two options here. You could do circular walk around Stac Pollaidh and go around the base (still a bit of a climb to get there), or you can go up to the summit. We didn’t go up to the summit and still enjoyed stunning views as we walked around. The landscape is amazing, you’ll see lake and mountain views one side, and you can see out to sea on another.

We walked anti-clockwise but I think the views may be even better going clockwise!

The route is 4km and there’s around 450 metres to go up if you don’t do the summit. If you’re going up there you’ll be going up 612m.

Drive – approx 2 hours 40 mins

A long driving stint today but its broken up with loads of stops along the way to lap up the views (which are just incredible).

Break the drive up by stopping in Ullapool. Chores have to be done with vanlife! So we did some food shopping (in the big Tesco), and also had a shower at Lochbroom Leisure Centre. We hoped to fill up the water tank at the campsite but they wouldn’t let us because we weren’t planning on staying here. We managed to get some further along at another campsite who were kind enough to let us fill up (for a small charge).

🍴Fish and chips in Applecross bay

Applecross bay is stunning. We stopped for some fish and chips and enjoyed the view.

There’s also an old pub here serving Raasay gin made on the nearby island across the bay (you have to try it it’s gorgeous!).

🛏️Applecross Bay – War Memorial

We parked up for the night at the War Memorial on the bay. The picture above was taken from the back window of the van. This was one of my favorite wild camping park ups of the whole trip,with uninterrupted views of the bay.

Day 6 – Applecross – Glencoe

Day 6 was all about the drive on the infamous Bealach na Bà road!

If you’ve been googling NC500, you’ve definitely seen this 8km mountain pass! There are places to park up safely at the top to enjoy the view before you go down.

It has several hairpin bends so take it easy and go at a safe speed.

Pay attention to where the passing places are as it’s a one-way road. Usually, if you’re near the closest one, you’re expected to use it so it’s much easier if you’ve kept track of where they are.

This day put the ‘road’ in road trip, it was all about the drive for us – we loved it! We had around 4 hours driving to do but broke it up across the day to make the most of the views. We had a great day belting out our favourite tunes and watching the landscapes fly past.

Although the NC500 technically ends in Inverness, we wanted to drive a different route back down through Scotland after our NC500 trip so opted to drive from Applecross to Fort William instead.

Ok.. we also wanted to stop at the Glenfinnan Viaduct (from Harry Potter) when we realised it was up that way.

The views were some of the most impressive of the trip. We broke the journey up with scenic lunch and brew stops in the van. We also stumbled across another craft studio called Freedom Framery and Gallery.

You’ll also pass by the Eilean Donan Castle lookout. If you have spare time you could always walk across to visit. We generally found the drives took longer than maps says because of the viewpoints and taking some of the bends at slower speeds.

If you have a few extra days you could head over to the Isle of Skye. Instead of driving down to Fort William, drive to Kyle of Lochalsh and drive over Skye bridge.

🛏️We wild camped in Glencoe with immense views outside the van.

If you’ve got any more questions about the NC500 please let us know! Happy trip planning