A wee highland fling – haggis, neeps & tatties…

We did a slight detour at the start of the route to Loch Ness - to try and spot Nessie - no luck 😞! Before heading North East out past Inverness....

What an amazing trip around the top of Scotland. We have survived the NC500 – just!  Did manage to dislocate both our grey water and fresh water pipes meaning we lost all our fresh water on one leg (bummer) and all our grey water on another (yay – saved us from having to empty it at the campground!). Luckily both of them were easy fixes – they are designed to come apart rather than break, so we just fitted them back together, refilled and off we went on the next leg. The roads are single lanes for a large part of the route with passing places (about the size of a car) placed on both sides at various intervals. So, if you see a car coming then you stop at the next passing spot and wait, or they wave you through. When you don’t see them till it’s too late, one of you has to back up to the closest space! Not entirely easy in an 8m motorhome!!! There were some routes where larger vehicles could bypass the worst parts which we managed to miss, so Trap did a sterling job of navigating the roads – a truck driver is definitely an advantage when maneuvering a vehicle such as ours.

The beautiful (but cold) weather we had on the first half of the trip unfortunately disappeared as we reached the West Coast and we have been pretty much plagued by rain ever since. At least our home on wheels is really comfy and warm – I felt some sympathy towards the people in small campers, tents and on cycling trips – it must have been a bit miserable for them.

At our first stop John O’Groats, we had a lovely seafront caravan park – great views and a tiny pub that boasts being the last pub in Scotland – Trap mentioned they mustn’t have any pubs on the Orkney or Shetland Islands then! Apparently, they do, so the ‘last in Scotland’ catchphrase they had on everything is more a throw back to earlier times and a marketing gimmick rather than actually true!!! However, that didn’t take away from the cuteness of the town and we really enjoyed it there. We met quite a few people in the pub – locals, some English guys on a bike trip around NC500, another Scottish motorhome’ing couple who had recently done the main route and a just married couple. Funnily enough we ran into Lisa & Colin (the newly-marrieds) another 3 times on the trail!!

Our second leg saw us navigate right across the top, taking in some magnificent views, sandy beaches (the best we’ve seen on the trip so far – pity you couldn’t use them!), farmland and Smoo Cave. We spent the night on the Northwest Coast at Scourie Bay – another site perched on the edge of the North Atlantic Ocean – with views out to the islands and further and a wee fish ‘n’ chip food truck. A really lovely lady ran it and we were able to fix the fresh water pipe here.

Leg three saw us heading down the west side through mountains and lochs with the roads deteriorating as we went. Taking in Allt Chranaidh waterfall, Ardvreck castle, and Ullapool before landing in Gairloch at Sands Caravan park - another site with a beautiful beach just through the sand dunes.

Leg Four saw us head a little further south to Applecross, taking a road we thought was a little hairy in, but which turned out to be better than the road we took out!!!  Applecross is a tiny village about 1km long with a pub, restaurant, coffee cart and a few houses. Very cute and we ran into our newly wed friends so had a couple of drinks with them. The weather was terrible, so hunkered down for the night before heading out early the next day. To say the road out was challenging is to put it a little mildly, up through the mountains with limited visibility, one-lane, pot holed roads and passing places that could hardly be called that. Luckily it was a Sunday and we headed off about 8am so didn’t meet too many others on the road – whew! If you’re interested, check out the videos below of the drive.

Our final leg saw us heading further south to Ben Nevis – Scotland and the UK’s highest mountain and passing the world-famous Eilean Donan Castle – which we stopped off to visit. It’s a really cool castle to visit and worth the entrance fee. Privately owned, there are wedding and family photos from the current owners as well as paintings of the original owners. Built in the early 13^th century, the original castle was blown up as part of the Jacobite risings in the early 1700s and remained a ruin for 200 years until John Macrae-Gilstrap bought it and set to restoring it in 1911. It took 20 years and the restorer died just before it was completed!!  Anyway, enough of a history lesson! We stayed a couple of nights at Fort William at Glen Nevis caravan park but unfortunately it poured down for 2 days straight, so we didn’t see much of Ben Nevis.

We’re now in Luss on the shores of Loch Lomond – it’s been another scenic trip through the mountains – stopping at the Glen Coe War Memorial, three sisters, Bridge of Orchy and having lunch in an awesome pub – the Drovers Inn. Complete with a life size stuffed bear, antlers, antiques and a classic pub feel, The Drovers Inn was VERY popular – we got there just after 12 and by 12.30 it was pretty much packed – so clearly everyone knows about this – thanks to Marty for the recommendation!

After travelling the highlands, two things are clear. 

One: walking & hiking seem to be the Scottish national sport. We have seriously never seen so many people walking and hiking in our lives. And they head off come rain, hail, strong winds and cold temps – wrapped in their waterproof gear, carrying packs any traveller would be proud of, they are up and off first thing in the morning, returning weary but satisfied late afternoon. It seems you can basically walk anywhere you want – across fields, hills, mountains. We passed them all over the place – madness 😊! 

And two: the highlands are beautiful, majestic, awe-inspiring, harsh, stark and cold. The highlander Scots must have been a really hardy bunch to survive up here with rock, gorse, bracken and sheep your only companions. Travelling must have been exhausting and trying to eke out a living in the hard rock excruciating.

We’re off to Ayr tomorrow via Barrhead (Glasgow) and a visit with Marty’s wee mamie and sister, before heading towards the coast and the ferry to Ireland.

Cheerie an-drasta (Bye for now).

J&T xx