NC500 - Applecross to Gairloch

Driving the North Coast 500 (NC500) was on our Scotland bucket list since we arrived, but we needed a long weekend to give ourselves (almost*) enough time to drive and enjoy the 500 mile loop.

Easter 2018 proved the perfect weekend and we set off from Glasgow, car packed to the rafters, ready for a long weekend of driving, camping and exploring the Western half of the NC500.

To give ourselves a truer start to the NC500 route, we set off to stay in Fort William for Thursday night. Entirely by accident, we timed the ever beautiful drive through Glen Coe to almost perfectly meet the sunset. We stopped the car to walk a little and appreciate the immense beauty of the place. We arrived as the light on the mountains transformed the sunny colours of the glen into a palette of soft, sunsetted autumn tones. A truly grand sight, and a good omen for the beauty we were to experience this weekend.

Day 1 of the NC500 took us from Fort William, to the Applecross Peninsula and finished by camping at the Sands Campsite near Gairloch.

After a short morning of driving, we took an early lunch of delicious squat lobsters at the Kishorn Seafood Bar. Housed in a beautiful cottage and serving up a feast of local seafood, it is a stop definitely worth making especially before tackling the notorious Bealach na Ba. The high road across the Applecross Peninsula winds up a narrow, single track road to a viewing spot at the high part of the crossing. The viewpoint looks down the road just travelled, and across to a picture perfect panorama of the black and red cullins of the Isle of Skye.  

After moments sufficiently taken to appreciate the view, we continued onward, down the mountain pass towards Applecross and around the peninsula. With highland coos, a stop to pick up smoked treats for dinner, and the sweeping views of both mountain and sea, the drive around Applecross Peninsula did live up to its reputation as one of the most beautiful we had seen in Scotland.

But then we kept driving. The views and the coos, the mountains and the sea just kept on coming. This part of Scotland is incredibly beautiful, and jaw dropping is not an exaggeration. I hope my photos serve to preserve some of those places we visited.

The mountains we drove past are all named in Gaelic for their striking colours (Liathach – the Grey One) and beauty (Beinn Allgin – Jewelled Mountain). We pulled up at, in the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve along Loch Maree – Britain’s first National Nature Reserve in Wester Ross. On a short hike through the old Wood of the Grey Slope (Coire na Glas Leitr), we explored the ancient pines, still so sharp and green amongst the brown and grey of the great mountains.

We made it to the Sands Campsite in time to pitch our tent and cook our freshly bought smoked salmon into a pasta. We ate on the beach, watching the sunset from the sand dunes.