Today was a day catching up with friends who moved to the area a year and a half ago and enjoying the Scottish sunshine. We made the most of it as it is not guaranteed when we will see it again. We had a great walk along the beach at Findhorn and dinner at the dog friendly Kimberley Inn. Thank you to Jon and Cathy for showing us around and giving us some tips on where to go over the next couple of weeks during our road trip driving the North Coast 500.
You may not have heard of the NC500 as it is a relativity new tourist route created in 2014 by the North Highland Initiative in order to create a tourism route that the whole of the North Highlands could benefit from. It has been called the Route 66 of Scotland and is becoming a popular road trip. The route is just over 500 miles long around the coastal edges of the North Highlands taking in the villages and towns of places like Ullapool, Durness, John O’Groats, Dornoch and Inverness. We are hoping to take in a couple of distilleries, castles, beaches and the odd pub!
The Official North Coast 500 route begins and ends at Inverness Castle but we will detour a bit to take in a few sights that have been recommended to us. If you want to do the route there is a great website www.Northcoast500.com and also an app you can download. Both of these have lots of information on places to visit as well as accommodation on route. I did see a guide book that they have launched as well now that you buy online through the website.
The official website has itineraries tailored to different interests which all go clockwise round the route. We have decided to go anti-clockwise as reading other people’s blogs on their trip they all say the most stunning scenery is the west coast so we are planning on saving the best to last. I will keep you posted as to whether this was a good decision or not.
Miles driven – 20 miles
Miles walked – 9 miles
Weather – sunny and warm
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