With Donna getting a new job offer and embracing fun-employment, we took the somewhat impulsive decision to tackle a road trip that we’ve been meaning to do for a fair while now. This was of course, the famous North Coast 500 around the top of Scotland.

This was the definition of last-minute planning, with us booking only the first 3 nights of accommodation before setting off. We did have a rough idea of the places we’d wanted to stay and the general length of time we’d wanted to do the trip in, but we were very much winging it.

Day 1 - Heading up to Dornoch

We set off early bells, aiming to get to Inverness for a spot of lunch at a place we’d read about in Highlands2Hammock’s book - Scotch and Rye in the heart of Inverness. This was a great shout, with the food being good and it being a very dog-friendly place.

After lunch, we popped into the local supermarket for some supplies and then hit the road on up to Dornoch. We’d booked a pitch at the Dornoch Caravan and Camping Park, which was a lovely little site with great facilities and a short walk into the town.

We got ourselves settled in our pitch, grabbed a beer, and then headed down to the beach for a fairly incredible sunset. I grabbed the drone and got it up in the air to capture some nice sunset shots.

Day 2 - Dunrobin and John O’Groats

On day 2, we packed up the van and headed off to see the incredible Dunrobin castle. This French-Chateau style castle is a definite must-see if you’re in the area. Unfortunately, we’re a bit early in the season and the gardens were just starting to be prepped for spring, but it was still a great visit, if a little expensive.

We then popped over to see Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, which wasn’t quite as glamorous as Dunrobin, but it was a great opportunity to get the new drone out again and try my hand capturing some POI shots.

Once we’d had our fill of castles for the day, we headed up to John O’Groats to see the famous sign and walk around the harbour.

We grabbed a little selfie with the dogs at the sign, settled them into the van and then grabbed some fish and chips from the local chippy just across from the harbour.

We finished up grabbing a pint in the John O’Groats distillery, as well as getting some warmth into us, before packing it in for the night.

Day 3 - The Famous Duncansby Stacks and Kyle of Tongue

Day 3 was an exciting one for me, we were heading up to the famous Duncansby Stacks and I was excited to get the drone up in the air to try and do the incredible scene justice.

Whilst the stacks, and the lighthouse, were incredible, the real highlight of the day was the sunset we bore witness to at our Kyle of Tongue campsite.

We’d had a long day and had just settled in for the evening when the sunset light really started to kick off. Donna convinced me to grab the drone and get it up in the air to capture the scene. I’m so glad she did, as the videos I got were some of the best I’ve ever taken. You’ll have to wait until the YouTube video in order to see these though!

There was a minute where I thought I’d lost the drone… I’d flown it out over the bay and gone a little further that I’d previously gone before. The wind then decided to pick up and the drone was struggling to make it back to me. I was getting a little worried, but I managed to get it back to me with 10% battery left.

Day 4 - Lime Kilns and Smoo Cave

We awoke in Kyle of Tongue and got ourselves pulled together. The weather at this point was starting to turn a little, the storms were starting to roll in which would make the next few days a little more challenging.

We’d had such an incredible start to our trip with regards to the weather, so we were mentally prepared for the inevitable turn.

We headed off to see the Lime Kilns and Smoo Cave. For the Lime Kilns, we parked up at the view point and took some time to soak in the views.

The next stop of the day was Smoo Cave - this incredibly impressive limestone cave features an internal waterfall and looks incredibly impressive.

Our next campsite was a mear 5 minutes down the road, we hadn’t booked this site and were a little worried about having to find alternative accommodation, however, we were in luck and managed to get a good pitch for the night.

We spent the evening making some dinner and planning out the final nights of our trip. We decided it was better to have campsites in place so that we didn’t have to worry about showing up to a campsite at a given time to try and get a pitch.

The wind this night was something else, we were getting battered by the wind on this fairly exposed site. There were points we thought that the pop-top roof on our van was going to come crashing down on us due to some of the stronger gusts.

Day 5 - Clachtoll Beach and Ardvreck Castle

We woke up after an incredibly windy night and headed over to see Oldshoremore Beach. This was a little out of the way, but it’s an incredibly beautiful beach that’s worth checking out.

We then made our way to see the pretty awesome Ardvreck Castle. This was a great stop and I’d highly recommend making this an absolute must-see on your own trip. It’s a fantastic little castle on a rocky promontory that looks out over Loch Assynt.

Day 6 - The Bone Caves

Another incredibly windy night in the van, but this time we were at a slightly more sheltered campsite so it wasn’t quite as bad. The Clachtoll Beach campsite was genuinely one of our favourite sites from the trip. The facilities were great and they really go above and beyond to make you feel welcome and comfortable.

The hike out to the Bone Caves is fantastic, it’s a fairly straightforward circular route that takes you up to the caves and then back down to the car park. The caves themselves are impressive, and it’s incredibly interesting knowing the history of the caves and the bones that have been found there.

Day 7 - Inverewe Gardens

We hit the Corrieshalloch Gorge first to see the suspension bridge and check the impressive Victoria Falls. This was seriously

Day 8 - Beinn Eighe Nature Reserve

The final full day of our trip and we were heading to the Beinn Eighe Nature Reserve enroute to our campsite at Applecross. The views driving through this nature reserve were incredible and it’s inevitable that we’ll be heading back to this area in the future to explore more.

Day 9 - Eilean Donan Castle and Home!

The final day - the journey homeward. This was a long bloody day, we had a lot of miles to cover and we were both feeling a little tired and ready to get home.

We did have to make a slight detour to see the incredible Eilean Donan Castle though. This was a great final stop for the trip and it was a good final stretch of the legs before the final push home.

Wrapping it up

This was an incredible trip, I’m a little sad I’d taken ill over some of the later days and wasn’t able to fully enjoy the trip. However, I’d 100% do this trip again in a heartbeat and potentially spend more time in some of the areas we’d visited.

It was also fairly cold during our visit with the winter winds really giving it one final throw before spring kicks in. I’d love to do this trip again in the summer months and see how different the landscape looks.

I have tried to capture our itinerary in a separate post - Our NC500 9 day Itinerary - hopefully this might help other folk that are wanting to do the same trip!