You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Hey everyone,
Beginning to plan our summer holiday and looking at going for a trip round the northern half of Scotland for about a week. I’ve lived in central Scotland all my life but barely ever been further north with the exception of Fort Bill/Aviemore etc
Initial thoughts were to do the NC500 but beginning to hear a few mixed reviews about how busy it is/tourists/the east coast...
So looking for suggestions of places to go/things to do up in the north. Not against going on to parts of the NC500 but not looking to follow the full route.. things I’ve got on the list so far:
Camping in the lost valley, Glencoe
The fairy pools in Skye
Bealach na Ba road in to Applecross
Worth mentioning that I’m going with the Mrs so techy back country biking is unfortunately off the cards, could maybe squeeze in some mellow trail centre level riding though
Thanks in advance
My favourite part is up in the north west - ullapool to durness. I have seen otters and seals in the bay at the campsite in achiltibue, there is a nice single track road circuit there. The wee mad road from Lochinver is a bit of fun and very scenic. My avice would be not to do too much driving stay a couple of days in each place. Poolewe is another favourite bit. explore some of the dead end roads. Mellon udrigle is a nice spot
There's a lot of estate tracks that can get you well away from the crowds and into some spectacular scenery. The one from Poolewe past Kernsary and in to Fisherfield is probably as good as any.
+1 for the wee mad road
The traffic on the NC500 seems to move in waves, I drove the northern bit in reverse (Thurso to Kylesku) last summer and didn't see any traffic until about 11am when I was around Durness and there was about an hour of constant traffic heading the other way then it went quiet again. Based on that I'd get up early do a bit of driving then chill for a few hours (or head inland/away from the route) then do a bit more.
The Caithness tourist board will be along shortly to sing the praises of the east coast 😉
Thanks for the replys guys
@tjagain
Yeah I definitely want to spend some time around Ullapool as well, interested to hear more about the mad road at Lochinver as well?
By estate tracks do you mean tarmacced roads? Or proper back country landy tracks? Worried about biting off more than i can chew with my fwd hatchback!
Yeah we noticed the same when driving on Skye last year, some points you'd barely move due to queues and other points it would be plain sailing
*disclaimer* I've nothing against the east! Just heard its slightly anticlimatic with nothing much to see after doing the west and northern coast of the NC500
Estate tracks tend to be landrover tracks - I was meaning that you could bike along them, they tend to be authorised vehicles only but some do allow vehicle access to allow Munro bashers to get to a car park. The track from Oykel Bridge to Corriemulzie Lodge for example.
The mad road is from <span style="text-decoration: underline;">here</span> northwards to Lochinver. It's just really very twisty and bendy! I think there's one bend just after the fish farm that has a maximum vehicle length but it's been a long while since I've been on it.
The loop north from Lochinver is fun as well - working hard on my motorbike I barely averaged 25 mph. Lochinver larder for pies as well - best pies in the world.
If you fancy some ferries / islands corran ferry just south of fort william, lochaline ferry to mull, drive to tobermory then ferry to kilchoan on ardnmurchan - its a road full of character then you can go north to mallaig and ferry onto skye. slow going but fun