NC500 Adventure – Day 1

So if you’ve been keeping tabs on my Instagram, you’ll know that I have recently returned from THE dream Staycation – road tripping the North Coast 500 route – a 516 (or there about) mile round trip around the very tippy top of the Scottish Highlands. Think beautiful rolling hills, mountains, clear blue waters, gorgeous waterfalls and so so much more! There are so many suggested places already, but we topped of the road trip bucket list with so many extra – off the beaten track activities, in addition to the classic NC500 stops – courtesy of a wonderful book called ‘Wild Guide. Scotland‘. In addition we also took the route anti-clockwise, different to the classic west to east route that most people take. So I thought i’d share a day-by-day breakdown of our not so traditional NC500 route. I will link info for each stop and the airbnb’s we stayed in so you can find out more (pink highlighted). Let’s get started!

Night 1 started just outside of Inverness arriving at our Airbnb for the night before starting day 1 in the morning- an adorable eco-friendly tiny house with a compost loo to go with it!

For dinner that night, we took a short drive to Inverness to go to Scotch & Rye – delicious burgers, yummy cocktails and mocktails, plus super friendly staff! Highly recommend their BBQ chicken wings – the BEST BBQ sauce I have ever had!

After a delicious meal out we took the quick drive back to the (tiny) house and settled down for the night before waking up early for the start of our North Coast adventure.

The next morning we ventured out about 10 mins away from our accommodation to a viaduct we had spotted when arriving at our cosy stay, to get some epic drone shots. It was tipping it down with rain, but hey, not even rain could ruin our first morning!

Next Stop – Bunchcrew House – not really a stop per say, however it was one that Sammy & I were keen to make, as it was the place in which his Dad had got married. We stopped for a couple of photographs of the view of the bay, and the beautiful pink building!

After the quick stop we made our way over the Kessock Bridge, onto the very start of the NC500 Route, heading to our next stop – Fortrose Cathedral… A set of Cathedral ruins from the 1300s, within the gorgeous little village of Fortrose. We had a wander of the area, reading all of the little plaques telling us of the Cathedral’s story.

A quick drive up the coast, we arrived at Chanonry Point – the best place to spot dolphins (when the tide is right). We didn’t see any dolphins, however we did spot a seal bobbing its head along the surface of the water, and did have a lot of fun getting pictures on the sea-wall, which allows you to walk out into the sea without getting your toes wet! You really can see how crystal clear the water is from there!

Another drive along the coast, we stopped in Rosemarkie for a walk along the beach, and a toilet stop. Sammy decided to have a (very) little rock climb to pose for a photograph, and we witnessed a dog go mad for somebodies cheese sandwich! This beach is very beautiful, and peaceful. It does have a cafe, unfortunately we didn’t try it out (this time!)

Just a short walk away from Rosemarkie, lies the start of the 20(ish) minute walk to the Fairy Glen Falls. This small trek follows the edge of the river, across a few bridges and finishes up at a cascading waterfall – Fairy Glen. We both really enjoyed this walk, even though we weren’t expecting the length of the walk to the falls (obvs hadn’t done our research properly), it was definitely worth it – super pretty!

Stop 6 took us to lunch in Cromarty to a cafe called Sutor Creek. We knew we wanted to go here, as we had heard amazing reviews of their food, but little did we know, it was located within a lovely little harbour town. The cafe was, at the time, only taking takeaway orders to eat outside or take elsewhere, so after ordering and whilst waiting for our lunch to be ready, we took a stroll to the beach and harbour, where you can see all of the oil rigs out at sea! Lunch was a good as the reviews, with delicious pizza, garlic bread and cheesy fries, however we ordered so much we ended up taking our pizzas away with us for dinner that day!

Post-lunch we said bye-bye to Cromarty and attempted to go and find McFarquhar’s Bed, which was meant to be some pretty cool caves, however we took the trek from the start of the walk listed in ‘Wild Guide. Scotland‘, and the trek down was pretty hidden once you’d gone through all the farm land – Sammy managed to find the caves from above but not so much the route down to them.

Google maps suggested route from there was to catch the car-ferry from Cromarty to Nigg on the isle opposite, however and luckily we’d checked the route ahead of time and found out that the ferry wasn’t currently running, so the only way from there, after a quick toilet-stop in Cromarty again, was to drive along 40 minutes across a bridge and along the other side for another 40 minutes – a very pretty detour though. Our destination? Tarbat Ness Lighthouse – a beautiful, secluded, and though residential, still a stop for a photograph and a wander along the coastal paths surrounding.

Now it was time to go to our Airbnb for the night. One we were super excited for – a night in a Caravan looking sitting within a farm looking over the croft with the stunning mountains surrounding! We were greeted on arrival at Highland Croft, by the lovely Stefanie, who showed us around the caravan, and separate newly renovated kitchen / shower block, as well as the rough outlay of the croft and where all of the animals were situated so we could go explore and say hello! That night it was actually a pretty clear sky, so we woke up around 2am to get some shots of the night sky.

To find out more about our stay on the croft you’ll have to read next week’s post where I will be sharing Day 2 of our NC500 adventure!