Scottish Highlands

Ever since I bought my NC 2.0 Sport Tech, a few years ago I wanted to take it to Scotland and do a bit of driving round there.Ā  Previously I had only spent 6 hours in Scotland in Edinburgh.

A few of the highlights driving wise:

A83 Tarbet to Inveraray, this has a mixture of driving alongside Lochs and along the side of the hills.

A819 Inveraray to the A85 near Kilchurn Castle, this road was mainly through the forest but of the 15 miles we had no other cars going in our direction.

A82 Tyndrum to Glencoe. This was probably my favourite drive scenery wise

A82 & A87 Isle of Skye to Fort William.Ā  Again, scenery was lovely, you are pretty much guaranteed to get stuck behind someone doing 45 mph somewhere on this drive however as with all the roads once you are clear the corners and straights are a lot of fun

The Isle of Skye along with the scenery also has some fun roads to drive along, it has a lot of single-track roads with passing places although on some of these you have to be careful with the sheep wandering around close to or on the road.

Overall, I managed on average for the whole 1500-mile trip 40.03 MPG, admittedly 800 miles of the trip were the drive up from London and back down again so pure Motorway miles. Purely off the motorway in Scotland I still managed 39.5 ish.

Very pleased you enjoyed what you managed of Scotland.

Often nip up Glencoe & beyond for the day for a bit of fresh air.Ā 

ā€œHaste ye backā€ and do consider the 500 some day ( youā€™d need a whole week mininum) and check out the Lothians & Galloway if you can.

Ā 

Most places in Scotland thereā€™s great driving roads and fewer people, the locals are relatively friendly too, come back and let us know where youā€˜d like to explore.

Done it twice now, Scotland, planning on further trips soon, we are hooked. Certainly the NC500 is a must, as mentioned a week just on that is essential but thatā€™s just covering the main route, plenty to see venturing off route too.

You donā€™t need a week on the NC 500- but it is lovely if you do spend that much time . Two days are fine - but as said before , it is not an official route , goes the wrong way (east -west ) and there are many alternative routes to enjoy the Highlands .

I first ventured up to Wester Ross and Sutherland nearly 40 years ago and still adore it. I think Iā€™ve mentioned a short guide Iā€™ve written before - but if anybody wants a copy just pm me .

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John,

When I said a week, I was taking into consideration the 800/900 round miles return it takes for many to get this far.

Some brave souls could and would get North in a ā€œonerā€ but Iā€™d not like it myselfā€¦

But yes, a couple or 3 days for the 500 is spot on really, I agree 100%Ā Ā 

We, The Captains Wife, Rising Sun, Powder Monkey and myself, spent a very pleasant week in the Highlands last week, and met up with our old Driver mate Scottish Fiver who took us on a terrific blat around Glencoe.

The rest of the week was spent discovering the delights of Scotland, even the drive right around Loch Ness was great, plus we crossed the Atlantic!!!

We also managed to find THE Skyfall spot while there were no other cars there.

The NC500 is on the list but even if we do not do that we will be back in Scotland in the not too distant future. the roads are terrific MX5 roads.

Glen Etive, I found that too, lovely area but not exactly a fantastic road to drive, more like with trepidation.

I took a detour one day to Kinloch Rannoch, you get to it off the A9 near Pitlochry. It was a forced detour ,my OH insisted we do (Outlander filming set) weā€™ve done many but what a very nice drive again and a pub lunch thrown in, wonderful.