North coast 500

Events Great Driving Roads
81

Hi Team

I did the 500 last year,which i extended after to do a lot more including mull,i think other than the Pecos mountains  it was the best car touring journey of my life,this year i am going back to do something slightly different,i do not book in advance just gat B & B where poss,last year had to use the tent twice but great fun.

This years trip will start in Oban over to outer Hebrides drive the road to the top etc,then ferry from Stornaway to Ullapool then across scotland to catch ferry to Orkneys after Orkneys down to cross new road bridge .

 

Live the dream absolutely amazing All best Simon

 

82

As I can see a few are probably going to do the NC500 this year and there are a lot of single track roads on it and if you choose to “go for a wander” off piste those roads will mostly be single track, please use the passing places to let the locals get on with their daily lives.

Transport for Scotland have issued some advice for visitors not only to the NC500 but Scotland in general, there are a lot of single track roads up here, particularly further North http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-43414610 unhelpful of the BBC to post this and not a link to the advice, however, there should be something here https://www.transport.gov.scot/transport-network/roads/ if someone wants to search & for during your journey/planning they have a twitter account @transcotland

and there is also @trafficscotland ‏  both where very helpful & responsive during the “Beast from the East’s” visit

Enjoy the drive kind of hard not to in an MX 5 with beutifulscenery 

83

We are going for our 3rd tour this spring. As some people have stated the east coat is nowhere near as spectacular as the west coast. What we did last year was, rather than going up the east coast from Allness, we took the road north to Bonar Bridge, then to Lairg and then onward on the A836 (mainly single track) to Tongue on the north coast where we stayed before heading west on the NC500. This was a beautiful drive. We are going to do the reverse this year. Whilst in or passing Tongue it is worth a drive north on the west side of the Kyle to visit Talmine beach which is beautiful. What I would also suggest that if you are in the Trossachs area, you should drive the A821 which is a fabulously twisty road in a lovely area. 

84

The NC 500 interest continues!!

My wife and I have just completed our tour bookings for early summer this year.

Very much taking out time with perhaps only 40 - 50 miles per day so that we can saunter off and explore the wonderful beaches and sights that are there to be enjoyed.

I would say that we found that the accommodation is filling up and there were often occasions when we had to slightly amend our destinations to get fixed up. One of the issues that we hadn’t allowed for was that over weekends many places were looking for a minimum stay of TWO days.

We are looking forward to the “500” and hopefully getting lots of “MX5 waves”!!

Cheers

Robin

 

85

^^^ Yes we found searching and booking over the Christmas/New year period 2016 for a trip in May 2017 a little challenging, so much that we decided to leave it until Sept that year.
We plan another trip May 2019 so the searching/booking will commence no later than this summer to get what and where we want.
It’s not so much as we couldn’t find places, it’s just what was left were out of our budget or more off route the further North you get. That goes for most holiday destinations though, make later bookings and all the best or reasonably priced ones have been booked.
We stayed in a variety of accomodation ranging from large hotels, pubs and one hostel. The hostel I particularly enjoyed in Applecross although very basic for location, the large hotel at Bettyhill and a luxury B&B at Latheron on the East coast our last stop on the NC500 to name a few.

86

I was hoping to do it this May with Mrs Noddy And was going to book a place part way up and in Inverness or close (going to start from there) but the rest of the accommodation we were hoping to find on the day cause it depends how far we go by what happens each day don’t know how long we are going to tak no rush I thought. Is that not a good idea then ?

87

 

I like to pre book, that way you know you have a bed for the night without the search when you get there. Ok you have to do a fair bit of planning, we bought an inexpensive map of Scotland and planned and marked on the route our planned overnight stops, mainly one nighters and places we would like to visit on route. We had it planned so we didn’t travel more than 80 miles each day, some days less.
We didn’t just do the NC500 it was a tour of Scotland, well a mini tour, skimmed the surface really and missse dloads as time wouldn’t allow. It was up the West coast from Dumfries & Galloway darting across to Falkirk to Loch Lomond, Fort William and all tourist places inbetween there and Inverness. We took in the NC500 over 6 days but spent 18 days/nights overall in Scotland and had a lovely couple of nights to finish off in Edinburgh. It was never enough by a long way hence we return next year.

I’d never rely on finding accomodation say for us for 18 nights by just turning up and hoping to find something but that’s just me. If camping or motorhome then a good few do just that and rely on finding something, I’ve done that too, campsites in my early days but always forward booked.

Have fun, half the fun is in the planning but the best is knowing you have it all sorted pre trip.

88

You have a point maybe I ought to re think. The MX5 is hardly the car you want to sleep in at over 60yrs of age.

89

Noddy2, I would strongly advise against trying to get accommodation on the day as MickAP also advises. Even pre-booking 6 months in advance can be difficult. In some areas, towns (villages really) are far in- between and very small with very limited accommodation. You could end up driving miles from village to village with very little in the way of petrol stations along the route. When we have been staying up there, people who are desperate to get accommodation have been turned away! 

 

90

Thanks I will get on the internet and try to sort something.

91

[quote=Noddy2]

Thanks I will get on the internet and try to sort something.

as the others said mate,pre book,we did what you said last year and drove from Lochgoilhead to fort Augustus before finding a hotel with a room 

92

I feel there are a few people being a bit ‘harsh, on the east cost part of the NC500 route. The beauty of the NC500 route is the different and varied landscapes that the route takes you through. No question the West Coast is more spectacular, but the east coast is just as interesting albeit in a different way. The main A9 north of Inverness can be quite a busy road as it is the main road north, but pick the right time of day and you can have plenty of fun. It is full of twisting bends and interesting features such as The Berridale Braes, and great coastal cliff views as you hug the north east coast heading north. Personally I have always been fascinated by the Caithness Peat Lands which stretch for as far as you can see interspersed by the boundless quantities of Caithness slate.
There are lots of things to stop and see. Distilleries such as Dalmore, Glenmorangie, Balblair is just a few miles off route, Clynelish, Old Putney and Wolfburn,. Loads of historic cairns, standing stones and tombs. Stunning castles such as Dunrobin. There are also a few less well known jewels such as Whalligoe Steps. Wick has the shortest street in the land which is a good photo opportunity. There are also great places to stop for refreshment. The local club have used La Mirage in Helmsdale regularly and nobody has yet managed to finish the special fish and chips. The Salmon Bothy at the bottom of the Berridale Braes has cakes to die for. Add to that lots of really interesting old fishing villages with bags of character and stories to tell.

However if you must come up at the busy times and get a bit frustrated by the traffic heading north then turn off the main A9 at Evanton and take the B9176 across ‘The Struie’ to Bonar Bridge. Then turn right at Bonar onto the A949 which will take you back onto the A9. Head north on the main road but at Helmsdale go left onto the A897 and all the way up to Melvich on the north coast. This route is more fun with less traffic, but the bit from Helmsdale north is all single track.

The NC500 is now a victim of its own success which has boosted accommodation bookings by 35% so please do book ahead. It has brought a few benefits and there are now more 24 hour petrol pumps in some of the smaller communities which were not there before. We just hope that all of this success means that they may maintain the roads a bit better.

There is now a New North East 250 which is a route in and around the Grampian area. More details on www.northeast250.com

Also remember there are active local clubs in the area who will be delighted if you want to join us on any of our local activities. Just keep an eye on www.mx5scotland.co.uk

93

All booked start at Inverness on 2nd of May going clockwise with 6 hotels and back to Inverness . As been mentioned a lot were fully booked. Looking forward to it.

94

Thought i’d post the following just in case anyone else thinks about doing this route, the daily travel times are guidance only for a continuous trip between places so i could gauge how long we could spend sight seeing each day, the list of petrol stations is quite long as at the time my wife & I did this particular years trip on a motorbike with a much smaller tank, we obviously didn’t stop at all of them but it was reassuring to know how far the next petrol station was, anyway someone may find some of it helpful, for info we did the east coast, north coast, west coast way round as my wife had never been before & i wanted to save the best till last, we also visited places not on the list as signpost detours, some were very worthwhile.

 

 

Scotland Trip September 2016

Day 1 – Home – Arrive Grantham 16th

            128 miles – 2¼hrs

 

Day 2– Grantham - High Stoop – West Woodburn – Carter Bar - Jedburgh – Arrive Falkirk 17th

            287 miles - 5½hrs

 

Day 3 – Falkirk – Falkirk Wheel - Kelpies – Dunblane – Perth – Pitlochry – Highland Wildlife Park -  Aviemore – Arrive Inverness 18th

            165 miles - 3½hrs

 

Day 4 – Inverness – Lentran – Muir Of Ord – Dingwall – John O Groats – Dunnet Head Lighthouse – Arrive Bettyhill 19th

            191 miles - 4¾hrs

 

Day 5 - Bettyhill – Tongue – Smoo Cave - Durness – Scourie – Kylesku – Drumbeg - Stoer – Ledbeg – Arrive Ullapool 20th

           135 miles - 3¾hrs

 

Day 6 – Ullapool – Laide – Gairloch – Kerrysdale – Talladale – Kinlochewe – Fearnmore – Applecross – Arrive Plockton 21st

            153 miles - 4¾hrs

 

Day 7 – Plockton – Morvich – Invergarry – Invergloy – Fort William – Ballachulish – Highland Titles Nature Reserve – Appin – Arrive Connel 22nd

            116 miles - 2¾hrs

 

Day 8 – Connel – Tyndrum (Green Welly) – Crianlarich – Inverbeg – Old Kilpatrick – Glasgow – Hamilton – Lockerbie – Gretna Green – Arrive Carlisle 23rd

            189 miles - 3¾hrs

 

Day 9- Carlisle – Garsdale – Bainbridge – Leyburn – Bedale – Arrive Home 24th

           331 miles - 6¼hrs

 

 

          Total – 1695 miles

 

 

 

 

Petrol Stations

 

Home – Tesco

Grantham – Moto Services NG32 2AB (133 miles)

Consett – Morrisons DH8 5RE (159 miles)

Falkirk – BP FK2 0PS (131 miles)

Inverness – Morrisons IV2 3PX, Tesco IV2 7GD,  (165 miles)

Beauly – Bridgend Filling Station IV4 7EH (14 miles)

Muir Of Ord – Ord Filling Station IV6 7XR (3 miles)

Dingwall – Tesco IV15 9PP (8 miles)

Skiach – Skiach Services IV16 9XJ (9 miles)

Alness – Morrisons IV17 0UY (2 miles)

Tain – Asda IV19 1NZ, Tesco IV19 1EH (13 miles)

Brora – Victoria Garage KW9 6NJ (24 miles)

Wick – Tesco KW1 4QS  (47 miles)

Thurso – Bridgend filling Station KW9 6NJ (50 miles)

Bettyhill – Bettyhill General Merchants KW14 7SP (31 miles)

Scourie – Scourie Stores & Filling Station IV27 4SX (67 miles)

Ullapool – Lochbroom Filling Station IV26 2SX (69 miles)

Laide – Laide Post Office & Filling Station IV22 2NB (41 miles)

Kinlochewe – Kinlochewe Filling Station IV22 2PA (34 miles)

Applecross – Applecross Filling Station (42 miles)

Locharron – Locharron Filling Station IV54 8YD (18miles)

Kyle Of Lochalsh – Central Filling Station IV40 8AG (23 miles)

Connel – Ledaig Leisure PA37 1RT (110 miles)

Oban – Halfway Filling Station, Birchwood, Oban Filling Station (8 miles)

Tyndrum – Green Welly Stop FK20 8RY (34 miles)

Carlisle – Golden Fleece Services CA4 0AN (158 miles)

Bedale – BP DL8 1DD (90 miles)

Grantham – Moto Services NG32 2AB ( 111 miles)

Home – (132 miles)

95

^^^ Appreciate you were on a bike but that’s a very tight schedule. From experience I would take 6/7 days doing the NC500 and around 80-100 miles max per day. It can be done in less time of course but that cuts down your time off or out of your vehicle visiting attractions etc.

96

 

Once we actually started the NC500 route it was quite ok on the bike tbh & we stopped whenever the wife saw something of interest or needed a coffee/pee break but we were limited by the length of time she could be away from work, we even fitted in a few hours to visit a friend in Denny & a day riding round Cumbria with another friend on the way back to Suffolk.

 

97

Just got home to Yeovil Somerset, the weather was really bad driving up stopped at Chorley for the night then at Invernes. Went clock wise. Had 5 hotels going around and Carlisle on the way home. Great roads lots of single lane but plenty of passing pull in‘s, watch out for the Tesco delivery drivers and the many camper vans. The weather was good enough to have the roof down 3 days. Totalled 1875 miles didn’t use any oil or water not bad for a 19yr old car. Great break I think this retirement lark is the best job I have ever had. 

 

98

Where were you guys! Did part of the NC500 last week. Unbelievably glorious weather, 27 deg C and clear blue skies all week. Set off from South Cumbria to Fort William where we had our first night’s stop. Then to Gairloch where we stayed 2 nights, then on to Tongue where we stayed two nights. Instead of going on to John O’Groats we went directly south to Lairg and then Pitlochry where we stayed the night before returning home to Cumbria.

We visited Plockton on the way to Gairloch. Plockton is extremely pretty and the added bonus was that there was a Gin festival going on which made my Wife’s day. The Gorse, Bluebells, Rhododendrons and Azaleas etc were all in full bloom. The smell of Coconut from the Gorse was amazing.

The food in the B&Bs and hotels we used was generally excellent, the only let down being the breakfast at the B&B in Fort William which was appalling. I didn’t see one guest manage to eat more than half there breakfast.

The driving as expected was superb with very little traffic and great roads with clear visibility around corners etc (no high stone walls and hedges like here in Cumbria). Nearly everybody we caught up with pulled over at the first opportunity (as instructed by the Police signs). Only one idiot seemed not to notice the long queue of traffic (including motorbikes) behind him . A guy following him in his Scottish Highways Agency pickup resorted to putting his flashing lights on and sounding his horn (he had to get to work!) to try to get the idiot to pull over at one of the numerous passing places. Once the idiot did pull over the Highways Agency bloke stopped alongside him, presumably to tell him in no uncertain terms, the driving etiquette on single track roads .

If you ever get near Callander on your travels you must do the A821/A81 loop west around Loch Venachar (part of the Trossachs Trail) which is basically a go-kart track with numerous tight bends with very little in the way of straights where the nimble MX5 really comes into its own (even the wife was grinning!).

Anyway a fabulous holiday but amazed we saw only three other MX5s, only one of which acknowledged our waves.  

99

Sounds like you had a fab time, sorry we couldn’t be there, always thinking of this route (see their Facebook page) we plan on doing another trip next May.

We did it last September going in to October, more or less going to places you stopped off at. Plockton is a lovely little place and we had the opposite when staying in Fort William, B&B not so good, well it was to a budget but the breakfast there was great. I don’t think anywhere really was below par, great hospitality everywhere and on the whole the roads and users of were great, can’t wait for next May to come around.

100

Glad you had such a great time, and to get weather like that over there is very lucky indeed. Doesn’t surprise me though, here in Aberdeen, we’ve had constant sun and blue skies for a couple of weeks, rare indeed for the end of May, start of June.

I did half the  NC500 in October 2016. Went from Aberdeen to Aviemore, next day Aviemore to Ullapool. Day trip up to Durness (and that still ranks as my favourite road ever, fast, open road with amazing scenery and clear sight lines, my car was amazing that day, pulled like a train too).  Third day over to Portree in Skye and last day over to Aberfeldy.

It’s a fantastic short break and with the roof down and music up, was quite unforgettable. Glad it all worked out well for you.

Portree is a stunning small village, but almost impossible to get accommodation there such is its popularity…