Tuesday
The North Coast 500, or NC500, isn’t just a road trip—it’s a Highland rite of passage.
Winding over 500 miles through Scotland’s wildest, most breathtaking scenery, this iconic route takes you from Inverness to the very edges of the mainland and back again. Think jagged coastlines, remote white-sand beaches, ancient castles, misty mountains, and enough photo stops to fill a dozen memory cards.
NC
.. and we are off ...
Packing is not Nikki’s strong point, and much of her Scotland wardrobe consisted of shorts and vest tops, which as it turns out, were not entirely suitable. After many times muttering ‘what was I thinking’ we had to stop off in Next in Inverness for her to buy Jeans and some warmer tops.
Inverness is the start and finish of the NC500, and after a week of travelling we cross Ness Bridge and so it begins, the Sun even put in an appearance (yay). Today we are heading 117 miles up the coast to Dunnet Bay with a couple of stops along the way at Wick and John O’Groats.
En-route we start to experience the real beauty of the Scottish Highlands, with roads hugging the coastline surrounded by forests and hills. One of our worries about our journey was what the roads would be like and how they would accommodate the Beast, but so far so good, and we are yet to regret our choice of Motorhome.
Loch Fleet
We stopped briefly at Loch Fleet, mainly to allow 3 Motorhomes to overtake us, but a lovely spot for some photo’s. Merlin Bird ID told us there was an Eurasian Curlew around, although we couldn’t see it.
Helmsdale
Lunch was at a beautiful harbour spot in Helmsdale, with a flock of Black Legged Kitiwake’s flying all around. We could have parked overnight if we had wanted to with a contribution to the RNLI station there. As mentioned wild camping in Motorhomes is not strictly legal in Scotland, but many appear to do so, and it’s tolerated or even encouraged in some places.
John O' Groats
We decided to skip our stop at Wick, and headed up to John O’Groats. Fascinating story about how it got its name, see photo. It was really pretty, and we partook in a quick drink in the pub there, which has its own brewery. Steve had a pint of the Stout ‘Deep Groat’, apparently Linda Lovelace fronted the advertising campaign, with Nikki opting for Liddel Eddy, a lager. After a quick mooch around the shops (where Steve dissuaded Nikki from getting a cuddly Highland Coo, at least on this occasion) we headed a few miles further to our overnight stop at Dunnet Bay.
Dunnet Bay
Nikki has done a fabulous job with the itinerary, but even the best planning occasionally goes awry!
Shortly after arriving and setting up she had a call from Sango Sands, where we are staying tomorrow, to ask us if we still wanted our pitch tonight…. Ooooops. Nikki had a minor panic that as a result the whole of the entire rest of our journey was a day out, fortunately it wasn’t, emergency over. However, they couldn’t guarantee us an EHU (electric hook up) the following night, so we decided to stay another night in Dunnet Bay and spend the following day exploring this part of the coast at our leisure.
Dunnet Bay is simply gorgeous, with a wide sweeping sandy beach, the sun was out, and the BBQ was on ! A very relaxing evening, including a stroll along the beach at 10pm, still broad daylight.
4 Responses
It all looks amazing .. well some parts not but got to take the rough with the smooth … why can I actually hear Nikki saying “what was I thinking “😂😂😂😂
LOL Michelle, i never seem to get it quite right ……I was convinced that the moment I bought warmer clothes the weather would change, but alas, not. Lovely sunny evening tonight, but a cool wind … I’ve not worn shorts once, whereas Steve has hardly changed out of his !!
Fabulous memories being made❤️
I cycled from Spean Bridge to John O’Groats via Inverness. 195 miles. Looked like a chocolate chip cookie after the midges got me when I had a little doze at 3 am.