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The North Coast 500: Your Travel Guide

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The North Coast 500: Your Travel Guide

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1. The NC500 Route
2. How to Do the NC500
3. NC500 FAQs
4. Food & Drink
5. What’s It Like to Do
6. Flora and Fauna
7. Highlights & Gems
8. NC500 Hills
9. History of the Route
10. Visit

Scotland's Most Iconic Roadtrip

Officially launched in 2015, the North Coast 500 was originally conceived to bring tourists to an undervisited and underappreciated area of Scotland. Present day, no one can argue it’s done its job very well. The 830 km/516 mile long road trip takes in the best of the Northern Highlands of Scotland. It’s here where you can see some of Scotland’s most dramatic and beautiful scenery, intriguing castles, beautiful coastal villages, iconic distilleries and famous luxury hotels.

The North Coast 500 Route

The North Coast 500 by Area

Inverness-shire
Applecross, Torridon & Wester Ross
West Coast & Assynt
North Coast (Sutherland)
Caithness
Easter Ross (Brora & Dornoch)
The Black Isle

“This trip exceeded all expectations and left an imprint on my husband and me. It was a truly wonderful and magical experience for us both. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

– Laura Honig, 21/07/2023, Road Cycling – The North Coast 500: Highlights

Ways to Do the North Coast 500

Part of the success of the North Coast 500 is that, even though it was designed as a road trip, it appeals to people from all walks of life. You’re just as likely to meet luxury travellers staying at five star lodges, hopping from stop to stop in their lovingly tended vintage cars, as slightly bedraggled hikers returning to their roadside vans for the night. You’ll find purists driving the route in its entirety, alongside those who prefer to tackle a single section and deeply immerse themselves in one area. With travellers exploring by motorbike, bicycle, boat, or even horseback, you certainly aren’t limited to experiencing the sights from behind a steering wheel. Beyond the drive, the NC500 offers rich culture alongside some of the best hiking, sea kayaking, and road cycling in the country. There’s wildlife to spot, castles to explore, and endless beaches to admire.

We offer that same freedom at Wilderness Scotland. Dive into an immersive sea kayaking trip, cycle the absolute highlights of the route, or let us craft a fully planned, luxury self drive adventure just for you.

Sea Kayaking

Sea Kayaking – Introduction to Sea Kayaking

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Wilderness Walking

Wilderness Walking – Wilds of Assynt

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Photography

Photography – Assynt and Coigach

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Sea Kayaking

Sea Kayaking – The Scottish Highlands

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Road Cycling

Road Cycling – The North Coast 500: Highlights

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Self Guided Cycling

Self Guided+ Cycling – North Coast 500

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Self Drive

Self-Drive – The North Coast 500

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NC500 FAQs

Is the North Coast 500 actually 500 miles? Read More: Just a little over, actually! The official route is 830 km/516 miles, but the name NC500 sounds a lot cooler than NC516, doesn’t it?
When is the best time to do the North Coast 500? Read More: It depends on what experience you’re after. Summer will have the best weather, but it’s also busier. Autumn is already a fair bit quieter with more accommodation availability, and the north of Scotland does autumn particularly well. Spring is also less busy than the summer months, and there’s a lot to love this time of year, with frolicking lambs and spring flowers, plus lengthening days. From mid-November to mid-April is the full shoulder season. Some attractions, like certain castles, shut over the winter, and the roads can get icy, so driving is less enjoyable in the colder months. However, for the brave and determined, the dramatic scenery is even more spectacular in winter, and with virtually no light pollution, you’re in with a good chance of seeing the Northern Lights.
Where does the NC500 start and finish? Read More: No matter which direction you decide to travel around the North Coast 500, the route officially starts and finishes in Inverness. To begin your adventure and enjoy a grand closing, most travellers choose to start from Inverness Castle. The castle visitor experience is a wonderful way to introduce you to the North of Scotland, and there are plenty of nearby cafes, bistros, and pubs to enjoy a celebratory treat or a well-earned whisky at the end of your journey.
Is it best to do the NC500 clockwise or anti-clockwise? Read More: There are benefits to going both ways. It’s most frequently done clockwise, as many of the iconic views associated with the NC500 are from a clockwise approach, such as dropping down to Kinlochewe, passing the iconic Glen Docherty viewpoint, and having the Assynt sugarloaf mountains unveil themselves as you pass the corner past Ullapool. This direction offers an immediate immersion into the rugged grandeur of the West. However, people also argue that going anti-clockwise means you finish on a high, with the most dramatic scenery near the end of the trip. This alternative route provides a wonderful sense of build-up, where the rolling coastal pastures of the east gradually transition into the wild glens of Wester Ross.

Food & Drink of the North Coast

Savour the Spirit of the Highlands

Enhance your northern adventure with our guide to the distilleries and breweries of the North Coast 500.

From recognised, world-class to no less delicious small-batch gems, our selection offers a fun way to explore the heritage of Scotland’s most northerly-produced drinks.

Spirited North: Distilleries & Breweries on the NC500

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What Is It Like to Do the NC500?

NC500 - Bealach na Bà

This famous section of road is one of the UK’s steepest with winding hairpin bends of up to 20%. It is an infamous challenge among cyclists. Starting from near sea-level it rises 626 m/2,054 ft in 9.1 km/5.7 miles of tortuous uphill.

NC500 - The Kylesku Bridge

The Kylesku Bridge is a stunning architectural wonder that connects the journey from Unapool to Kylestrome over Loch a’ Chàirn Bhàin below as you wind along this glorious coast road. This western section of the North Coast 500 offers some of the most scenic views out to the western isles and the Atlantic.

NC500 - Loch Assynt

The journey from Ullapool to Lochinver passes through some of Scotland’s most dramatic wild scenery. This is one of our favourite sections of the route. As you fly along the 6 miles of shoreline of Loch Assynt, towering peaks loom in the distance and there’s a real sense of wilderness that envelops you.

Wildlife of the North Coast 500

The North Coast 500 covers incredibly varied scenery, and with it a wide range of wildlife habitats. If you know where to look, you have a good chance of seeing many of the animals Scotland is best known for. The northern coasts are a haven for seabirds such as sea eagles, puffins and guillemots, and for marine life including dolphins and several species of whale. Boat tours and sea kayaking are a great way to improve your chances of seeing them. On land, you’re in with a good chance of spotting otters along the shoreline, deer on the hills and a fascinating variety of insects. The route also passes pockets of ancient woodland, home to red squirrels and other woodland wildlife.

Scotland's Wildlife Guide

Castles to Visit

Many writers on the North Coast 500 will wax lyrical about the castles you can see along the route. But which castles are these, actually?

The big names are Dunrobin Castle, Ardvreck Castle, the Castle of Mey and Castle Sinclair Girnigoe. These are the most notable ones to visit, and no two are alike. From sprawling gardens to rocky ruins, and French Renaissance grandeur to brooding clifftop fortresses, each castle offers something different and is well worth a stop.

Scotland's Most Dramatic Castles

The Beautiful Northern Lights

In Shetland they’re called the mirrie dancers. The northern lights. The aurora borealis. Many names for one of nature’s greatest shows, and one of the best places to experience it for yourself is the far north of Scotland. The northerly latitude and minimal light pollution maximise your chances of seeing the lights, and of capturing them on camera should you so desire. Autumn and winter, when the nights are longest, give you the best odds. The north west Highlands also offer a spectacular backdrop, and if you’re not treated to the dancers themselves, you can still enjoy some of the best stargazing of your life.

Capturing the Northern Lights

Highlights & Hidden Gems

This guide covers the North Coast 500’s best-known landmarks, along with some quieter spots that many visitors drive straight past.

Enjoy a balance between the must-sees and more intimate and unique experiences.

North Coast 500: The Highlights & Hidden Gems

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Hills of Northern Scotland

The North Coast 500 passes through some of Scotland’s best-loved areas for hillwalking. In Torridon, you’ll find dramatic peaks of red sandstone, several capped with pale quartzite, and a number of them rising over 900 m/3,000 ft. In Scotland, these are known as Munros. Further north, the mountains of Assynt are generally lower but no less striking. Peaks such as Suilven and Quinaig rise steeply out of the surrounding landscape, giving them the look of islands. Much of the area falls within the North West Highlands Geopark, and the rock here is some of the oldest in Europe. The views are like nowhere else in the country.

History of the North Coast 500

How the North Coast 500 began

Until 2015, few visitors travelled much further north than Inverness. That year, the North Highland Initiative launched the North Coast 500. The Initiative is a non-profit set up to support economic growth in the far north of Scotland. The idea was simple. It linked the existing coastal roads through Ross-shire, Sutherland and Caithness into one loop, starting and finishing in Inverness.

What the route has brought to the Highlands

More than ten years on, the North Coast 500 is one of the best-known road trips in the world. Its impact on the North Highlands has been significant. The route has brought investment to the region and supports more than 1,000 jobs. Several historic hotels along the coast have been bought and refurbished, and local communities now have a greater say in how the route is managed.
Inverness has a new reason to linger, too. Its castle has reopened as a visitor attraction after a major renovation, so the journey now begins and ends somewhere worth stopping.

Travelling the route well

Popularity brings its own challenges. Many of the roads here are single track, and plenty of visitors drive the whole loop in just a few days. That means spending tends to stay in the larger towns, while smaller villages see less of it.

We’ve thought carefully about how we bring our guests here. We promote small-group travel, which means fewer individual cars on the road. We choose our accommodation as anchor points from which we explore, so that we can stay longer in each place rather than rushing between them. Several of our trips skip the full loop altogether to explore one area in depth. We work with local guesthouses, cafés and guides along the route, so our trips support the communities that make it special.

Spring

Spring weather is mild, but the days are lengthening and consistently drier. The landscape is buzzing with life and colour, with flowers blooming and bustling wildlife.

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Summer

Summer promises long days, pleasant temperatures, and festivals galore. The countryside transitions from vibrant green to breath-taking purple as the heather blooms.

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Autumn

Autumn is a time of colourful landscapes and glowing skies. Witness some of Scotland’s most exciting wildlife spectacles and taste flavours unique to our autumn months.

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Winter

If the conditions are right, Scottish winters are the epitome of ‘winter wonderland’. Crunchy snow underneath your boots, sparkly fields, and the most beautiful night skies.

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