THE NORTH COAST 500 – IT’S REDISCOVERY NOT INVENTION

In November 2017 my wife and I were travelling on the Pacific Coast Highway in New Zealand and stopped for a brew in Wairoa, between Napier and Gisborne. There on the shelf in the local paper shop was a copy of the luxury issue of Scottish Field magazine in which appeared an article by Richard Bath on the North Coast 500. As a lover of Scotland I could not resist buying it. The magazine provided welcome relaxation for the rest of our tour around the North Island. The readership of the publication is truly worldwide!

Reading your article North Coast 500 brought back happy memories of a journey taken essentially along the same route in 2005. I had acquired a copy of H.V. Morton’s book In Scotland

Again published by Methuen in 1933 in which he describes the landscape and history along the anti-clockwise route from Inverness, around the northern coast of Scotland and back.

Chapter eight provides riveting detail of the history of the area including the downfall of Lord Lovat, the curse of the Seaforth family and political dealings of Montrose, and his travel log places you in the time and upon the moors, beaches and headlands.

From our holiday home in the abbey at Fort Augustus my wife and I spent three amazing days retracing Morton’s route by car. Two nights were spent at the exceptional Bighouse Lodge on the north coast between Bettyhill and Thurso.

Details of this journey and other interesting routes in Scotland were made available to guests at our Highland retreat. Several travellers reported following the Morton route, which obviously has been illuminated and branded the North Coast 500. Mike Vigurs, Barnsley, North Yorkshire