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North Coast 500

Scotland, UK · 66 stories · 3–5 days

Loop north past eerie gorge whispers, strange hilltop arches, medieval cathedrals, and salmon jumping near Harrods.

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Stories along the way

1. Kilometre ZeroYou are standing at kilometre zero of Scotland's most famous road trip, and the building above you is a bit of a fraud — in the best possible way. Inverness Castle looks the part:…
2. The Post-Apocalyptic ExperimentIn 2006, on a quiet patch of farmland in the Scottish Highlands, a group of volunteers stepped out of modern civilization to rehearse the end of the world. This was the brainchild…
3. The Whispers of Black Rock GorgeIf you stand on the narrow, somewhat flimsy-looking bridge high above Black Rock Gorge near Evanton, you are looking down into a terrifyingly steep, shadow-choked slice of…
4. The Tidy Streets of EvantonLook closely at the neat, orderly grid of streets in Evanton. In the 1840s, local ministers marveled at its regular appearance, built on what had been a waste of land. But if you…
5. The Strange Arches of FyrishAs you travel through Easter Ross, keep your eyes on the skyline around the parish of Alness. Perched on Fyrish Hill—known in Gaelic as Cnoc Fhaoighris—you might catch sight of…
6. Black Andrew and Contullich CastleImagine a Scotsman sweeping across the parish of Alness in the early sixteenth century, accumulating land and fortresses until he earned a nickname fit for a ballad: "Black Andrew…
7. The Archway Above AlnessLook up toward Fyrish Hill, towering over the Cromarty Firth, and you might spot a strange monument built to resemble an entry gate from southern India. That is the Fyrish…
8. From Nightspot to HavenIf you were looking for a lively night out along the Cromarty Firth back in the 1970s, chances are you would have ended up at the Jackdaw Hotel. Its bar and restaurant were a…
9. The Hollows of Logie EasterHigh up in the west of Logie Easter, hidden within Scotsburn Wood, stand a series of stone cairns. They were almost certainly raised to mark an ancient battle—a silent monument to…
10. Dornoch CathedralYou are coming into the small Highland town of Dornoch, where a grand stone building dominates the scene. It is called Dornoch Cathedral, though technically, that title is…
11. The Battle for Coul LinksOn a wild stretch of the eastern Scottish coast, just north of the village of Embo, lies Coul Links—a landscape that is constantly, quietly on the move. Here, wind and wave carry…
12. Salmon and Harrods at ShinPicture Atlantic salmon leaping against the torrents of the River Shin, battling their way upstream in one of nature’s great annual dramas. Now, imagine watching that spectacle,…
13. The Changing Map of RogartDeep in Sutherland, in a parish whose Gaelic name means "great enclosed field," lies Rogart—a place with a knack for leaving quiet, intriguing clues about its past. Take a patch…
14. A Château and Its LedgerRound a bend near Golspie and it appears like something misfiled from another country: conical spires, steep roofs, a French château that has somehow washed up in Sutherland. One…
15. The Journey of River HelmsdaleHigh in the Scottish Highlands, on the southern edge of the Flow Country, water seeps from the moors into a trio of interconnected lochs—Rimsdale, nan Clàr, and Badanloch. This is…
16. Helmsdale and the EmigrantsAs you come into Helmsdale, you are arriving where the Strath of Kildonan meets the sea. The Norse called this valley Hjalmundal, meaning the Dale of the Helmet, while the Gaelic…
17. The Evicted Village of BadbeaAs you travel along the high coastal road of Caithness, look out toward the cliffs of Berriedale. Squeezed onto a steep, windswept slope between sheep pastures and a sheer drop to…
18. Secrets of the Fan-Shaped StonesImagine standing on a Scottish hillside, looking at two hundred small, weathered stones sticking out of the turf like knee-high teeth. They aren't the towering, dramatic monoliths…
19. The Fisherwomen of Whaligoe StepsWhen the famous engineer Thomas Telford surveyed this stretch of the Caithness coast in 1786, he took one look at the sheer cliffs plunging into the sea and declared it a terrible…
20. Pulteneytown Parish Church: A Resilient FaithImagine standing in Argyle Square back in 1842. Pulteneytown Parish Church had just opened its doors, filled with all the optimism of a fresh start. But barely a year later,…
21. The Wind and Whispers of WickYou are coming into Wick, a town sitting right where the river meets the salt water of Wick Bay. The name itself comes from the Old Norse word vík, meaning bay or inlet, a quiet…
22. The End That Isn'tEveryone knows what John o' Groats is: the top of Britain, the finish line, the far end of the great Land's End slog that people cycle, walk, and occasionally push a bathtub…
23. The Queen Mother's Northern HavenAs you travel along the far north coast of Scotland, just a few miles west of John o’ Groats, you are entering a landscape shaped by relentless sea winds. Here, looking out across…
24. At the Edge of BritainNearly eighteen hundred years ago, the geographer Ptolemy sat down to map the edge of the known world. At the far northern reach of his map, he recorded a place named Virvedrum.…
25. The Atomic Headland of DounreayAs you travel this wild stretch of the Caithness coast along the A836, you are coming into Dounreay. The name comes from the Scottish Gaelic Dùnrath, meaning fort on a mound—a…
26. Scotland's Great European Blanket BogYou are travelling into one of the wildest, quietest landscapes in Europe: the Flow Country. The name comes from an old Scots word for a bog, likely borrowed from the Norse flói.…
27. The Ghosts of StrathnaverYou are travelling through Strathnaver, a broad and sweeping valley carved by the River Naver as it flows toward the northern coast. The name Naver may trace back to an ancient…
28. The Gold That Never Reached CullodenYou are coming down onto the Kyle of Tongue, with Ben Hope and Ben Loyal standing behind the village like two arguments for staying inside. On a hill above the water there's a…
29. The Secrets of Lock OrribleYou are looking out across Loch Eriboll, a sixteen-kilometer ribbon of sea cutting deep into the north coast of Scotland. It is a land of sweeping weather, deep waters, and the…
30. The Cave the Sea and the River ShareJust east of Durness the ground opens. Smoo Cave has the largest sea cave entrance in Britain — roughly fifteen metres high, forty metres wide — a mouth in the cliff you walk into…
31. Bones of the EarthLook around at the weather-beaten, grey rock rolling across this landscape, stretching all the way from near Loch Torridon north to Cape Wrath, and out across the Hebrides. What…
32. The Bridge Over Caolas CumhannYou are driving into a dramatic corner of northwest Scotland, where three sea lochs meet at a gap called Caolas Cumhann. In Gaelic, that means narrow strait. For generations,…
33. Suilven: The Pillar MountainAs you pass through the vast, watery wilderness of Assynt, look out across the horizon. Rising abruptly from a low landscape of peat bog and scattered lochans is one of the most…
34. The Secrets of Ardvreck CastleAs you travel along Loch Assynt, look out across the water to a rocky promontory jutting into the loch. Standing there is the stark, jagged ruin of Ardvreck Castle, built around…
35. The Falls That Escaped DynamiteEvery spring, beneath the rushing waters of the River Cassley in Sutherland, a quiet standoff takes place. Atlantic salmon assemble in the pools below Achness Falls, waiting. They…
36. The Upside-Down MountainLook up at the cliffs of Knockan Crag, high in the Scottish Highlands, and you are staring at a crime scene of nineteenth-century geology. In the 1800s, scientists arrived here…
37. Stewardship of Isle MartinLook out across the waters of Loch Kanaird, just three miles north of Ullapool along the A835, and you are looking at a corner of Wester Ross that has quietly reinvented itself.…
38. A Town Built for HerringUllapool looks like an accident of the coast — white houses in a neat line along Loch Broom, mountains behind, water in front. It isn't an accident at all. It's a designed town,…
39. Loch of Rain ShowersIf you were to look out across these dramatic Highland landscapes, you might easily mistake this vast stretch of land and water for a wild, empty expanse. But you are traveling…
40. The Chaotic Border of Ross-shireImagine looking at an old map of Scotland and trying to make sense of borders that look like they were drawn after one too many drams of whisky. That was the fate of Ross-shire, a…
41. The Unattractive Corrie of CorrieshallochThe ancient Gaelic name for this place, Coire Shalach, translates to the unattractive corrie. Whoever gave it that title was either deeply unimpressed or trying to keep the place…
42. The Strange History of Gruinard IslandLooking out across the waters of Gruinard Bay, you can see a quiet, oval-shaped island sitting just about half a mile offshore between Gairloch and Ullapool. It looks peaceful…
43. The Secret Waters of Loch EweYou are coming into the wild, sheltered waters of Loch Ewe, known in Gaelic as Loch Iùbh, cut deep into the rugged coast of Wester Ross. It was once said that these waters were…
44. The Miracle of Inverewe GardenAs you travel through Wester Ross, just north of Poolewe, you are surrounded by the wild beauty of the Scottish Highlands. Yet nestled along this rocky shore lies something…
45. The Secrets of Isle MareeOut on the quiet waters of Loch Maree sits a small, wooded island called Eilean Maolruibhe, or Isle Maree. Unlike the pine-covered islands around it, this place is thick with…
46. The Pale Peak of Beinn EigheAs you travel through the wild landscape of Wester Ross, look toward the towering, ragged ridge of Beinn Eighe. In Scottish Gaelic, its name means 'file mountain,' after its…
47. Liathach: The Hoary PlaceLook up at the massive, fortress-like mountain towering between Loch Torridon and neighbouring Beinn Eighe. The Gaelic name for this mountain is Liathach, which translates as 'the…
48. Shieldaig: From War to SanctuaryYou are coming into a quiet stretch of Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands. Long before modern visitors arrived to explore the nearby Torridon Hills, the Vikings named this…
49. Climbing the Pass of the CattleImagine herding Highland cattle straight up the side of a mountain, negotiating sheer drops and biting winds, all before beginning a march that might take you all the way to…
50. The Sanctuary of ApplecrossYou are moving through a landscape defined by sheer isolation. Around here lies Applecross, a mountainous peninsula bounded by sea lochs and the open waters of the Inner Sound.…
51. The Pass of the CattleThe road sign at the bottom reads like a warning notice, because it is one. Not suitable for learner drivers. Not for caravans. Not for large vehicles. What follows is Bealach na…
52. Secrets of Loch CarronLook out over Loch Carron, where the River Carron completes its journey into the North Atlantic, carving a boundary between the Lochalsh and Applecross peninsulas. On the surface,…
53. The Resilient River CarronLook out across Glen Carron, where the River Carron—or *Carrann* in Scottish Gaelic—carves its way through the rugged landscape of Wester Ross. Its journey begins high up in…
54. Milk, Money, and MisunderstandingsIf you had come through Achnashellach on the first of September, 1773, you might have witnessed one of the great misunderstandings of Highland travel. Riding into this quiet…
55. The Dark Legend of Loch ScavenThe quiet waters of Loch Scaven in Glen Carron look serene today, but Gaelic tradition gives this small Highland lake a decidedly unsettling back-story. In Scottish Gaelic, the…
56. The Stags of Ledgowan ForestImagine twelve thousand acres of raw Highland landscape—where rolling hills drop into steep, shadowed corries, and the River Carron makes its humble start in the wet expanse of…
57. The Highlands' Great CrossroadsYou are passing through Achnasheen, a tiny spot along the River Bran in the Scottish Highlands that managed to punch far above its weight for over a century. Look around today and…
58. The Pass of the BrogueImagine a wild, windswept mountain pass in the Ross-shire hills, where men were once forced to strip off their leather shoes and hold them against their chests as makeshift…
59. The Pouring Waters of River MeigLong before hydro-electric dams or modern maps, early speakers of Old Gaelic looked at a rushing stream in Easter Ross and gave it a name derived from an ancient root meaning,…
60. Scotland's Wobbling Rogie FallsTumbling through the Scottish Highlands, Rogie Falls—known in Gaelic as Eas Rothagaidh—is a striking series of waterfalls along the river known as the Black Water. Located just…
61. Loch of the Hill FieldLook out across the water, and you might easily mistake this peaceful stretch of Ross-Shire for an ancient Scottish loch. But Loch Achonachie is actually a mid-twentieth-century…
62. Harnessing the Conon ValleyIn the late 1940s, skeptics in the House of Lords scoffed at the idea of damming the Scottish Highlands. Hydroelectric power, they argued, was completely unnecessary—nuclear…
63. The Waters of Glen OrrinIn the late 1950s, heavy machinery rolled into the quiet, sweeping hills of Ross-shire in northern Scotland, set on reshaping the landscape itself. Between 1955 and 1959, the…
64. Power and Salmon on the CononIn 1874, a sudden flood swept down the River Conon, shifting its banks and exposing a medieval log boat buried deep in the mud. Radiocarbon dating would later place its…
65. The Valley of Fine ViewsLook closely at the older gravestones around this corner of Ross-shire, and you might spot an unusual word carved into the stone: sgudal, or scuddle. Long before a bridge spanned…
66. The Quiet Shifting of KillearnanIn 1881, if you walked along this five-mile stretch of coastline on the Black Isle, more than half the people you met spoke Gaelic. It was the living language of Killearnan—a…