2021 SCOTLAND'S NORTH COAST 500 TOUR

DATES: 2021 May 17th-26th ( 9 days/ nights )

TOUR COSTS PER PERSON

A. 2 PEOPLE IN A CAR SHARING A HOTEL BEDROOM 

Cost per person £2,450

B. 2 PEOPLE IN A CAR WITH 2 SINGLE HOTEL BEDROOMS 

Cost per person £3,650

The costs include the following:

  • Accommodation in 3-star or 4-star stylish hotels ( 9 nights )
  • 3-course dinners each evening
  • Breakfast daily in hotels
  • Rally plate
  • Comprehensive road book with daily itineraries and detailed route instructions
  • Michelin map of Scotland with the route highlighted
  • Services of a Tour Director throughout the tour

NOT INCLUDED ARE THE FOLLOWING :

  • Lunches, snacks, coffees, etc.
  • Drinks with dinner
  • Entry to places of interest eg. castles, museums, gardens, villas, etc.
  • Motorway tolls

SCOTLAND'S NORTH COAST 500 ROUTE

The North Coast 500 brings together a route of just over 500 miles of stunning coastal scenery in the far north of Scotland and was launched by the North Highland Initiative in 2015 as "Scotland's Route 66".

The anti-clockwise route officially begins in Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, before heading north to John O'Groats and Dunnet Head the northernmost point of Britain.

From here the route proceeds west along the north coast road through rolling grasslands to Thurso, famous among surfers then along the northern coast to Durness.

Here the route takes us down the northwest coast via Scourie, Unapool, Baddidarach, Ledmore to Ullapool. Then the route hugs the coastline around the peninsulas with views of Skye and the Western Isles. After passing through Glen Torridon and climbing over the Applecross Pass the route heads inland through Glen Carron and back to Inverness.

TOUR SUMMARY

A 9-day tour to Scotland with 5 days driving the entire North Coast 500 route.

To arrive at the North Coast 500 route we have designed a spectacular route up through Scotland which incorporates: Dumfries and Galloway, the Clyde Estuary, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, Rannoch Moor, Glen Coe, Fort William, Ben Nevis, and the Five Sisters.

Our tour starts in Dumfries where participants arrive on the first day.

The next day we drive up through Loch Lomond, Rannoch Moor and Glen Coe to Fort William then up Loch Lochy to Invergarry where our hotel is based.

On our 3rd day, we drive along Loch Cluanie, the Five Sisters, Loch Duich and Loch Alsh to the Isle of Skye up to Portree our lunch. In the afternoon we leave Skye and drive via Strathcarron where we join the North Coast 500 route east to Contin where our hotel is based.

The following day we drive around Loch Ness then return to Inverness and visit several whiskey distilleries to our Castle Hotel near Invergordon

For the next 3 days, we follow the anti-clockwise North Coast 500 route with overnight stops in Thurso in the north, Lochinver in the north-west returning to Contin.

Once we've completed the North Coast 500 route we spend the next day driving down to Pitlochry for the penultimate night of the tour. On the final day, we drive from Pitlochry to Lake Windermere where we spend the final night of the tour on a hotel overlooking the lake in Lakeside:

DRAFT ITINERARY

Day 1 Monday 17th May

Participants make their way to Dumfries  

Dinner tonight is in a country house hotel on the outskirts of Dumfries:

Day 2 Tuesday 18th May

Dumfries to Invergarry ( 205 miles including 70 on motorways )

We join the M74 and drive northwest to Dumbarton where, after 70 miles we leave the motorway and drive up Loch Lomond where we stop for morning coffee.

 

We then drive through Glen Falloch and across Rannoch Moor

Then through Glen Coe and along Loch Linnhe

  We continue to Fort William our lunch stop

 

After lunch, we continue along Loch Lochy to Invergarry, where our hotel is located.

 

Day 3 Wednesday 19th May

Invergarry to Contin ( 155 miles )

Leaving Invergarry we drive on a scenic driving road along Loch Cluanie and the Five Sisters.

We then continue along Loch Duich to Eilean Donan Castle, our morning coffee stop

We then drive to Auchteryre.

 

Here we turn to the Kyle of Lochalsh and over the bridge to Skye where our lunch stop is Portree on the east coast.

 

After lunch we return to the mainland and turn north-east to Strathcarron where we join the North Coast 500 route for the first time.

 

 

We continue through Glen Carron to Achnasheen

 

 

Next, we drive east, via Loch Luichart and Black Water to our hotel in Contin

 

Day 4 Thursday 20th May

Contin to Invergordon, via Loch Ness ( 115 miles )

After breakfast, we visit the Rogie Falls where salmon leap upriver in summer.

 

We then visit the nearby Glen Ord Distillery before continuing via Beauly alongside the Beauly Firth to Inverness

At Inverness, we detour from the North Coast 500 route to drive down the west shore of Loch Ness via Urqhart Castle to Fort Augustus, our lunch stop.

Fort Augustus is at the bottom of the Loch where the Caledonian canal joins Loch Ness

We then turn around and drive back up the remote eastern shore of Loch Ness back to Inverness where we visit the Pringle Factory shop.

We then rejoin the North Coast 500 route on the A862 alongside the Beauly Firth.

We then drive, via Beauly, to Mayburgh where we leave the NC500 Route to take another detour and drive around the Cromarty Peninsula stopping to visit the pretty Cromarty.

Back at Maryborough, we rejoin the route along the Cromarty Firth to Saltburn Dingwall. We then drive along the Cromarty Firth

At Invergordon, we turn inland to our Castle Hotel.

Day 5 Friday 21st  May

Invergordon to Thurso  ( 120 miles )

After leaving our hotel we drive 12 miles to the nearby Glenmorangie Distillery in Tain.

 

We take the A9  across the Dornoch Firth to Golspie, a red sandstone town

 

Here we stop to admire the Sutherland Monument, a 30ft high statue on a 79ft column on the summit of Ben Bhraggie created by the Duke Of Sutherland who forcibly evicted 15,000 crofters from his million-acre estate in 1834!

A mile north of Golspie we visit Dunrobin Castle, the largest house in the Highlands and modelled on a Loire valley chateau.

Dunrobin was designed by Sir Charles Barry,  the architect behind London's Houses of Parliament. It is the seat of the Sutherland family, once Europe's largest landowners, with 1.3 million acres!

 

From here the road starts to run along the coast all the way up to Wick but we stop in Helmsdale, a most picturesque village.

Wick was founded by the Vikings as Vik meaning Bay and in the 19th century was Europe's busiest herring port.

4 miles north of Wick we visit the Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, dating back to the 14th century

Continuing up the coast we arrive in John O'Groats.

 

Here we visit Duncansby Head.

 

Duncansby Head is not actually the northernmost point of Britain as this is claimed by nearby Dunnet Head a few miles west.

We then follow the coastline west to Mey where Mey Castle was the Queen's mother's holiday home for 50 years.

Prince Charles still spends two weeks there each year.

We then continue to Dunnet Head

 

We then drive a few miles west to Thurso, a legendary surfing resort.

Our hotel tonight is based just a few miles further west

Day 6 Saturday 22nd May

Thurso to Lochinver  ( 130 miles )

We leave Thurso and continue west via Tongue along bleak moorland intercut with sea lochs. 30 miles west of Thurso is Bettyhill, a crofting village set among rocky green hills and surrounded on either side by beautiful beaches.

A few miles further is Tongue, another pretty crofting town, then across the Kyle of Tongue and around Loch Eriboll towards Durness

A mile east of Durness is Smoo Cave a gaping hole in a limestone cliff created by the sea and a small burn.

 

 

Durness is the most north-westerly village on the British Mainland.

A mile northwest of Durness is the stunning white sands of Balnakeil Bay

A bit further is Cape Wrath which is closer to Iceland than to London and is the British mainland's most northwesterly point, and one of only two capes in the country.

On a clear day, you can see as far as Orkney and the Outer Hebrides.

 

We then drive across country to Laxford Bridge, on Loch Laxford, then west to Scourie

 

Just offshore is Handa Island is host to one of Europe's largest seabird colonies.

From Scourie we drive down to Kylesku where our lunch stop is on Loch Glencoul.

After lunch, there is an opportunity to visit Britain's highest waterfall, Eas a' Chula Aluinn at 650ft.

We then continue down to Unapool then take a minor road to the pretty village of Drumbeg where we stop to visit the Little Soap and Candle Company, where all products are handmade on-site and exclusive to this shop.

We then continue to the beautiful strand at Clachtoll

And on to Achmelvich where the tiny bay cradles a white sand beach lapped by azure water.

We then continue to Baddidarach where our hotel is located just a couple of miles away in Lochinver.

 

Tonight, we are using two hotels and the second hotel is a few miles away in Achiltbuie overlooking the Summer Isles.

 

Day 7 Sunday 23rd May

Lochinver to Contin ( 140 miles ) 

Our morning route takes us via Ullapool along Loch Broom to the Corrieshalloch Gorge where we visit the spectacular 160ft Falls of Measach.

Here we turn north-west along one of the most scenic roads on North Coast 500 along Little Loch Broom

We then drive around Gruinard Bay to Aultbea, one of the best places for a marine wildlife Safari.

Next, we drive down Loch Ewe

Our lunch stop is the Inverewe and Attadale gardens. a subtropical oasis of colourful foliage created by Osgood MacKenzie.

 

We then continue along Loch Gairloch and along Loch Maree, one of the area's scenic highlights, to Kinlochewe.

 

At Kinlochewe we continue along the North Coast 500 route through Glen Torridon then take the scenic coastal route via Shieldaig and Applecross then over the Bealach-na-Bo Pass to Strathcarron.

We then drive through Glen Carron via Achnasheen then via Loch Luichart and Black Water, back to our hotel in Contin where we stayed on our 4th night.

Day 8  Monday 24th May

Contin  to Pitlochry ( 105 miles )

Our morning route takes us to Inverness where we take the A9 down to Aviemore, our morning coffee stop.

We then take a scenic mountain route through the Cairngorms to Balmoral where we visit the castle.

Our lunch stop is nearby Braemar famous for its Highland Games.

We then continue on a scenic country road to Pitlochry where our hotel, for the last night in Scotland, is located.

 Day 9 Tuesday 25th May  ( 230 miles )

Pitlochry to Lakeside, Lake Windermere

Our scenic route takes us southwest along Loch Tay and then south-east over the Leny Pass to Stirling where we join the motorway south via Glasgow and Carlisle to Penrith where we leave the motorway. We then drive down Ullswater lake and over the Kirkstone Pass to Lake Windermere where our hotel is located at the bottom left-hand corner of the lake.

Dinner tonight, the last night of the tour, is in the hotel's restaurant.

Wednesday 26th May

After breakfast, we say our farewells and make our own way home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continue to Shieldaig,

We leave Shieldaig and drive along the Applecross Peninsula where we hug the coastline around to Applecross and then over the Bealach Na Ba, the Pass of the Castle, at 2,054ft  and the steepest road ascent in the UK with a 1.5 gradient and hairpin bends reminiscent of the French Alps !

 

Driving along Loch Kishorn and Loch Carron we arrive in Lochcarron where we stop to celebrate the end of the North Coast 500 route as this is where we joined the route 5 days ago. We then take the A890 for Strathcarron

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