North Coast 500 – billed as Scotland’s answer to Route 66. Perhaps a better way of looking at it would be a combination of Route 66 & Route 1- Big Sur highway. Taking in some of the most remote, rugged, beautiful and characterful areas of Scotland.
On this 7-day Private Guided Tour you will be driven round this this circular route that loops for nearly 500 miles around the most northerly coastline of Scotland by your own friendly dedicated Driver/Guide, who will be on hand to unlock all the secrets of the area, helping you connect with and immerse yourself in this unforgettable tour of the Northern Highlands.
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Day 1 - Today you will be met by a chauffeur and transferred from anywhere in Scotland that suits you, to the Culloden House Hotel – HQ of Bonnie Prince Charlie the Jacobite leader, before the battle of Culloden. Where you will spend 2 nights.
Here you will be able to get a feel for the atmosphere and explore the battle site with your guide as well as visit the visitors centre to find out more about the last battle to be fought on British soil. Spend the remainder of the day at leisure soaking up the atmospheric surroundings.
Day 2 - After breakfast you will meet your friendly Inspiring Travel Driver/Guide, together you will leave the Jacobite HQ behind and take to the battlefield to discover a pivotal moment in future of Scottish Highlands culture, the battle of Culloden. Here you will be able to get a feel for the atmosphere and explore the battle site with your Driver/Guide as well as enjoy the fantastic visitors centre to find out more about the last battle to be fought on British soil. After which we will visit the Highland Folk Museum, where history will come to life in Britain’s first outdoor museum, as actors in period costume show you what life would have been like hundreds of years ago.
After breakfast we will leave your fantastic hotel and travel towards the coastline, this is the start of the North Coast 500. We will hit Wester Ross and head along the coast to Torridon. Here you will see Scotland’s typical beauty and some of its most impressive mountains with the Isle of Skye serving as a backdrop on the horizon.
We take a slight detour to visit the charming village of Plockton. With cottages curving behind a tiny harbour and views across the Loch to mountains it is well worth a visit. After your visit we will take you to on one of the classic journeys of the Highlands, the Applecross peninsula, where all the classic elements of Scotland's coastal scenery will come together - atmospheric mountain ranges, white sandy beaches, small remote crofting cottages and views over the lochs and seas to the islands. At the east end of Loch Torridon we will stop at your accommodation for the evening, here you will be blessed with awe inspiring scenery, rising from the water are the mountains of Liathach and Beinn Eighe. All the while your Driver/Guide will be on hand, imparting all their knowledge of the area as well as to answer any questions you have.
(Breakfast Included)
Day 3 - After breakfast we will leave your fantastic hotel and travel towards the coastline, this is the start of the North Coast 500. We will hit Wester Ross and head along the coast to Torridon. Here you will see Scotland’s typical beauty and some of its most impressive mountains with the Isle of Skye serving as a backdrop on the horizon.
We take a slight detour to visit the charming village of Plockton. With cottages curving behind a tiny harbour and views across the Loch to mountains it is well worth a visit. After your visit we will take you to on one of the classic journeys of the Highlands, the Applecross peninsula, where all the classic elements of Scotland's coastal scenery will come together - atmospheric mountain ranges, white sandy beaches, small remote crofting cottages and views over the lochs and seas to the islands. At the east end of Loch Torridon we will stop at your accommodation for the evening, here you will be blessed with awe inspiring scenery, rising from the water are the mountains of Liathach and Beinn Eighe. All the while your Driver/Guide will be on hand, imparting all their knowledge of the area as well as to answer any questions you have.
(Breakfast Included)
Day 4 - Leaving the majestic scenery of Torridon behind, we continue up the coast, passing Badacharo & Poolewe, where the Arctic Convoy departed from during world war II. The way to Ulapool is a fantastic road with outstanding scenery and great views out to Gruinard Bay. The region just north of Ulapool, called Assynt is arguably more impressive than anything you have encountered previously on this road trip, as the vast peaks rise from the Moors. Assynt is home to some of the world’s oldest rock formations that are part of the Northwest Highlands Geopark. Lochinvar is your base for the night, nearby there are some crofting villages to take in as well as the imposing Suliven mountain and views out to the Hebrides.
After you have dropped your bags at your fine accommodation near Lochinvar you might be tempted to drive back down to Inverkirkaig to the falls of Kirkaig to the base of Suliven, an easy trek taking in a waterfall and a remote loch, or possibly a shorter walk just north of Lochinvar with fantastic views of the Assynt peaks (from Baddriach to Achmelvich), or maybe you would prefer to explore some more by road to Loch Assynt, Ardveck Castle & Knockan Crag, one of the world’s most important geological sites, or how about just relaxing at the hotel, simply discuss the options with your dedicated Driver/Guide and let him know what you want to do. They will accommodate your requests as well as being on hand to impart information and answer questions.
(Breakfast Included)
Day 5 - The North coast receives fewer visitors than the west coast. Stretching from Cape Wrath to John O’Groats. The North Coast offers sheer cliffs and white sandy bays, sculpted over time by the battering Atlantic storms. Along the north coast road you will see steep mountains in the west and lochs and moors in the east, not to mention the cliffs, beaches and rocky headlands.
After incessant raids in the dark ages, the Vikings ruled much of the northern highlands by the 9th century, they named the area ‘South Land’ which now forms the district of Sutherland.
First though we will reach the far north west of Scotland, a trip too far for some, as villages become fewer and fewer. As you are more intrepid than most you will be rewarded with a feeling of insight about life on the edge of civilisation along with sights of stark beauty like nowhere else in Scotland, a landscape marked with lochs and lochans. A visit to Durness the most north-westerly village on the British mainland where John Lennon used to come to visit his aunt Lizzie, which features on the song In My Life. Near Durness we will take you to visit the Balnakeil craft village, which was the sight of Scotland’s first hippie commune ‘The Far North Project’, before travelling on via the attractive setting of Tongue scene of the sinking of the Jacobite sloop the Hazard and its cargo of £13,600 worth of gold coins, along with the capture of the 1000 men trying to rescue the stricken treasure, look out for the shapely peaks of Ben Hope & Ben Loyal and the ruins of Castle Varriach, after which we will continue hugging the rugged and beautiful coastline to your accommodation just outside Thurso.
(Breakfast Included)
Day 6 -The east coast tells a tale of human history. Relics of the Pict's as well as Castles and Cathedrals and several places and monuments linked to the Highland Clearances. Stretching from Wick to Inverness the east coast is a fertile place, with rolling moors, fields and woodlands which run down to the sandy beaches in places like the Black Isle, which is not an island at all but a peninsula.
We now change compass direction and start heading back down south to compete this epic and scenic road trip and finish off in Inverness. Today we see a monument to the Duke of Sutherland, as huge as it is controversial it can be seen for miles around, you will learn more about the highland clearances and the affects it had on this area and the people who lived there. After which you will be taken to the Black Isle Peninsula to visit the picturesque fisherman’s town of Cromarty, here you will visit Cromarty Courthouse to find out more about the area and do the audio guided tour of the town. Today you may want to visit and tour the Glenmorangie Distillery or visit Chanonry point, one of the best dolphin spotting sites in Europe, simply discuss the options with your Driver/Guide after breakfast and they will take you to the preferred option. Today you will say fond farewell to your friendly Driver/Guide as they drop you off at your hotel in Inverness for the end of your tour.
(Breakfast Included)
Day 7- Check out of your hotel in Inverness before your onward private chauffeur transfer.
(Breakfast Included)
Extra days, different itinerary, anything can be arranged, simply call or click the Tailormade - Customised Tours button.
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