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Been meaning to get this post together for a while so here goes.
Since reading about the North Coast 500 I've been dying to do it so I got planing and came up with a rough itinerary of things do do and places to see. We initially looked into staying in some B&B's but over the course of 6 nights it turned into quite an expensive venture so decided to camp it. A pitch for the night was between £10-£15 compared to the £80-£120 for most B&Bs' on the route. I think we ended up covering somewhere in the region of 700 miles. I guess the North Coast 700 doesn't quite have the same ring. Car in question is a 2004 DC5 with the following mods. KPRO, DC Sports manifold, decat, Tegiwa Carbon Intake and a few suspension tweaks. Running at around 240bph.
Luckily we had some great weather and doing in in May means that we missed the dreaded midge season. May seems to be the best time of year to do the trip, everywhere is fairly quiet and May is generally seen as one of the driest months in Scotland, seriously.
Fortunately staying in Glasgow means that its not that far away. I did a fair bit if research before heading off and for anyone interested in doing it I think I covered most of the best bits below. We wanted to see most of the main sights and get a bit of hill walking and some big coastal walks in too as well as scope out the best places for grub. The food was amazing by the way.
Headed off first thing on a rainy grey Saturday morning. Around 5 hours up to Applecross. Despite the weather the drive was great, scenery stunning, you'll see a theme develop here with that.
Prior to heading into Applecorss we stopped at the Kishorn seafood restaurant for a late lunch, it was brilliant. Cullen Skink for starters and Garlic Scallops served with a Croissant. After leaving Kishorn we came tot he famous Bealach na Bà pass into Apllecross iteself. Unfortunately there was a lot of fog and the rain picked up again so our views were pretty limited. The road itself is great fun to drive, mostly single track with a steep climb and plenty of hairpins. Its not a road for driving fast on but it was great fun. Camped up in Applecross for the night, went to the Inn for a drink and a nosey about and saw some nice metal parked outside. I felt like a peasant in my rice wagon.
Woke up on the Sunday morning to a much clearer drier day so given we missed most of the views coming up the pass decided to drive it again. The views were incredible.
From Applecross we drove up to Assynt which was just under 4 hours away. Stopped in Ullapool for a wander and some food at the Seafood Shack, again highly recommended.
Took in our first Hillwalk and climbed Stac Polly, its a short but steep climb with stunning views.
Headed up to Clatchtoll beach Campsite and set up the tent. This was probably my favourite campsite, the surrounding area was stunning and took a wander down to Achmelvich beach and had a good walk for a couple of hours before heading back to the tend, got some food on the go and crashed out.
Monday morning we woke up to more blue skies and took a short drive to take in a coastal walk to see a sea stack known as Old Man Stoer. Took around 3 hours and again the views were stunning.
Saved a bee with a Fruit Pastel
Time for a late lunch so we headed into Lochinver and went to the renowned Lochinver Larder, pies is their speciality and what lovely pies they were. I had venison and cranberry with all the trimming. Spot on.
Set up at the Sango Sands Oasis campsite. Got a cracking spot with the best view on the site.
The following day we took a slow meander through Eriboll, Tongue and Bettyhill as we headed towards Thurso. I'd recommend stopping at Cocoa Mountain, it's a small independent chocolaterie and as good as it sounds. Good coffee too. Also took in Farr Beach and Smoo Cave, unfortunately didn't get a chance to visit Castle Varrich which was on my list as we drove by it accidentally and didn't really have the time to double back.
The closer we got to Thurso the less remarkable the scenery became, this was the case for most of the East Coast. I'm glad we did the whole thing but for future trips I doubt we'll venture further than Durness. We decided just to skip Thurso completely and head towards John O' Groats and took in another big Coastal walk at Dunnet Head, it was around 11 miles so by the time we finished that it was fairly late in the day. Set up camp in John O groats then went on the hunt for food. Wasn't impressed with the options at that time in John O groats so drove back to Thurso and had a great meal at Y Not Bar & Grill. Had a seafood pie/stew full of scallops prawns and muscles.
Tuesday morning we got up and took in another walk at Duncasby Head. After that we headed out to what turned into one of my most favourite sights, the Whalogie Steps. Its essentially and old fishing harbour but with quite an interesting history and its maintained by the locals. Once of which was pottering about outside as we arrived. He was a right character and happily chatted away to us about the history of the place. His father was the last fishermen to use the harbour. Getting down the steps it seemingly doesn't offer much that a stunning view but there was something special about the place. We ended up staying down there for a good hour or so just exploring the site before making our way back to the car. Unfortunately the highly rated Whaligoe Cafe was closed so onwards we headed.
The scenery started to pick up again and as we got closer to Brora we decided to stop and set up camp here for the night as it was a beautiful little place.
The old woman that ran the campsite also had a Collie that wandered the site looking for pats so I was convinced. There were only two other tents on the site. Not much to report in Brora other than being a nice place to be, took a walk down the beach and went to one of the local Inns, had some fish and chips which was as good as you'd expect.
Wednesday morning we woke up to blue skies and sun so took another long walk down the beach, had a coffee and just wandered about for a bit. We were kind of off schedule due to skipping the night in Thurso and most of the stuff we had wanted to see was on the West Coast. We drove down to Dornoch and spent the night and most of the next day lying on the beach.
We had planned on breaking up the drive home by stopping in Dingwall for the night but decided just to drive straight home through the dreaded speed camera laden A9. It wasn't a fun drive.
I absolutely loved the trip and will definitely back to quite a few of the places and take in some of the sights we missed. As I said before I was glad we did the entire route but I would definitely miss out Thurso and John O' Groats.
Overall, incredible driving roads, spectacular scenery and great food. My DC5 lapped up the roads and carried all the gear no problem in its cavernous boot. We would have had to seriously scale back the gear we took if I still had the S2000. Speaking of previous cars, here is my car history, the interesting stuff anyway. Quite happy with the DC5 for now but thinking maybe a 370z next year at some point.
Cheers,
Richy.
Since reading about the North Coast 500 I've been dying to do it so I got planing and came up with a rough itinerary of things do do and places to see. We initially looked into staying in some B&B's but over the course of 6 nights it turned into quite an expensive venture so decided to camp it. A pitch for the night was between £10-£15 compared to the £80-£120 for most B&Bs' on the route. I think we ended up covering somewhere in the region of 700 miles. I guess the North Coast 700 doesn't quite have the same ring. Car in question is a 2004 DC5 with the following mods. KPRO, DC Sports manifold, decat, Tegiwa Carbon Intake and a few suspension tweaks. Running at around 240bph.
Luckily we had some great weather and doing in in May means that we missed the dreaded midge season. May seems to be the best time of year to do the trip, everywhere is fairly quiet and May is generally seen as one of the driest months in Scotland, seriously.
Fortunately staying in Glasgow means that its not that far away. I did a fair bit if research before heading off and for anyone interested in doing it I think I covered most of the best bits below. We wanted to see most of the main sights and get a bit of hill walking and some big coastal walks in too as well as scope out the best places for grub. The food was amazing by the way.
Headed off first thing on a rainy grey Saturday morning. Around 5 hours up to Applecross. Despite the weather the drive was great, scenery stunning, you'll see a theme develop here with that.
Prior to heading into Applecorss we stopped at the Kishorn seafood restaurant for a late lunch, it was brilliant. Cullen Skink for starters and Garlic Scallops served with a Croissant. After leaving Kishorn we came tot he famous Bealach na Bà pass into Apllecross iteself. Unfortunately there was a lot of fog and the rain picked up again so our views were pretty limited. The road itself is great fun to drive, mostly single track with a steep climb and plenty of hairpins. Its not a road for driving fast on but it was great fun. Camped up in Applecross for the night, went to the Inn for a drink and a nosey about and saw some nice metal parked outside. I felt like a peasant in my rice wagon.
Woke up on the Sunday morning to a much clearer drier day so given we missed most of the views coming up the pass decided to drive it again. The views were incredible.
From Applecross we drove up to Assynt which was just under 4 hours away. Stopped in Ullapool for a wander and some food at the Seafood Shack, again highly recommended.
Took in our first Hillwalk and climbed Stac Polly, its a short but steep climb with stunning views.
Headed up to Clatchtoll beach Campsite and set up the tent. This was probably my favourite campsite, the surrounding area was stunning and took a wander down to Achmelvich beach and had a good walk for a couple of hours before heading back to the tend, got some food on the go and crashed out.
Monday morning we woke up to more blue skies and took a short drive to take in a coastal walk to see a sea stack known as Old Man Stoer. Took around 3 hours and again the views were stunning.
Saved a bee with a Fruit Pastel
Time for a late lunch so we headed into Lochinver and went to the renowned Lochinver Larder, pies is their speciality and what lovely pies they were. I had venison and cranberry with all the trimming. Spot on.
Set up at the Sango Sands Oasis campsite. Got a cracking spot with the best view on the site.
The following day we took a slow meander through Eriboll, Tongue and Bettyhill as we headed towards Thurso. I'd recommend stopping at Cocoa Mountain, it's a small independent chocolaterie and as good as it sounds. Good coffee too. Also took in Farr Beach and Smoo Cave, unfortunately didn't get a chance to visit Castle Varrich which was on my list as we drove by it accidentally and didn't really have the time to double back.
The closer we got to Thurso the less remarkable the scenery became, this was the case for most of the East Coast. I'm glad we did the whole thing but for future trips I doubt we'll venture further than Durness. We decided just to skip Thurso completely and head towards John O' Groats and took in another big Coastal walk at Dunnet Head, it was around 11 miles so by the time we finished that it was fairly late in the day. Set up camp in John O groats then went on the hunt for food. Wasn't impressed with the options at that time in John O groats so drove back to Thurso and had a great meal at Y Not Bar & Grill. Had a seafood pie/stew full of scallops prawns and muscles.
Tuesday morning we got up and took in another walk at Duncasby Head. After that we headed out to what turned into one of my most favourite sights, the Whalogie Steps. Its essentially and old fishing harbour but with quite an interesting history and its maintained by the locals. Once of which was pottering about outside as we arrived. He was a right character and happily chatted away to us about the history of the place. His father was the last fishermen to use the harbour. Getting down the steps it seemingly doesn't offer much that a stunning view but there was something special about the place. We ended up staying down there for a good hour or so just exploring the site before making our way back to the car. Unfortunately the highly rated Whaligoe Cafe was closed so onwards we headed.
The scenery started to pick up again and as we got closer to Brora we decided to stop and set up camp here for the night as it was a beautiful little place.
The old woman that ran the campsite also had a Collie that wandered the site looking for pats so I was convinced. There were only two other tents on the site. Not much to report in Brora other than being a nice place to be, took a walk down the beach and went to one of the local Inns, had some fish and chips which was as good as you'd expect.
Wednesday morning we woke up to blue skies and sun so took another long walk down the beach, had a coffee and just wandered about for a bit. We were kind of off schedule due to skipping the night in Thurso and most of the stuff we had wanted to see was on the West Coast. We drove down to Dornoch and spent the night and most of the next day lying on the beach.
We had planned on breaking up the drive home by stopping in Dingwall for the night but decided just to drive straight home through the dreaded speed camera laden A9. It wasn't a fun drive.
I absolutely loved the trip and will definitely back to quite a few of the places and take in some of the sights we missed. As I said before I was glad we did the entire route but I would definitely miss out Thurso and John O' Groats.
Overall, incredible driving roads, spectacular scenery and great food. My DC5 lapped up the roads and carried all the gear no problem in its cavernous boot. We would have had to seriously scale back the gear we took if I still had the S2000. Speaking of previous cars, here is my car history, the interesting stuff anyway. Quite happy with the DC5 for now but thinking maybe a 370z next year at some point.
Cheers,
Richy.
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