The ultimate North Coast 500 guide
Our guide to getting the best from one of Scotland’s most iconic rides
It’s one of the great rides – 500 miles through the wild, untamed landscape of the very north of scotland. Yet five years ago, nobody had heard of the north Coast 500. It didn’t exist. oh, bikers have been exploring the scottish coast for as long as there have been motorcycles… but there wasn’t a formal route until recently. that was launched in 2015 to attract visitors to the region – and it worked, drawing tourists not only from all over the UK but also, from all over europe.
success is a double-edged sword, though. More visitors means more traffic and fewer vacant hotel rooms. It’s all relative, of course, and even at its busiest the north Coast 500 is practically empty compared with busy biking roads in the south east… but the increased demand for accommodation on the route does mean it’s harder to just drop everything and take off on a whim to ride it. especially in the peak summer periods.
so how do you ensure your ride round the north Coast 500 is the best it can be? our advice is to start planning now. take our tips and check the official route website (www.northcoast500.com) and you’ll have the ride of your life.
1 Know the route The North Coast 500 is a circular route from Inverness around the very top of Britain, taking in John o’groats, Durness and the Applecross peninsula. It can be ridden clockwise or anti-clockwise. We’d favour going round clockwise: doing the most dramatic, challenging riding first; finishing with the more relaxed ride back down from John o’groats.
There’s plenty of fuel along the route (see the www.northcoast500.com interactive map) with an increasing number of self-service, credit-card-operated pumps. Mark them on your map or store them as waypoints in your sat nav – and always fill up at the first opportunity after the tank drops to half-full, just in case.
2 Timing Naturally, the North Coast 500 is busier at weekends — but it’s still relatively busy midweek during peak holiday periods. If you have the luxury of taking time to get there outside school holidays, then you’ll have the best possible run. We’d suggest trying to go in May, early June or September.
As Inverness is a good distance from pretty much anywhere not already on the NC500, you’ll also need to factor in the time needed to get to and from the starting point. If you’re coming from anywhere between Edinburgh and Leeds, we’d allow a day in each direction; anywhere south of Leeds, take two days to have any kind of decent ride to and from the start point.
How long do you need to do the NC500? Experienced high-mile riders who like a challenge have been known to do it in a single long day. Some pillion couples take three days, with lots of stops and a relaxed pace. Most people take two – which makes a great deal of sense and is what we’d recommend for most people.
3 Weather This is always the gamble. Scotland can have incredible weather — we’ve been on the North Coast in 28°C sunshine
and 10°C driving rain. At the end of May, in both cases. Clearly, summer months are more likely to be better — just be aware of the curse of the Highlands: the midges. These evil biting insects may descend on you whenever you stop, unless there’s a bit of a breeze.
So make sure you have flexible kit. Your waterproofing — whether it’s a textile suit or rain gear to be worn over something lighter — needs to be first rate. But your kit also needs to be able to vent and keep you cool if you get the good weather. Most importantly, it needs to be able to adapt to the conditions if they change.
The big benefit of taking two days to do the NC500, with a stop halfway round, is that you can adjust your ride according to the forecast. It’s possible for it to be wet on one half of the route on one day, then dry the next. Check the weather before setting out and though we’d prefer to go clockwise, if conditions will be better going in the other direction, switch round: it’s always better to ride in the dry.
4 Roads Most of the NC500 is on quiet roads — there’s very little traffic on most of it. But there are long stretches of singletrack road with passing places and this is where traffic can sometimes build up, especially behind slow-moving camper vans. The theory is that they’re meant to pull over in the passing places to let faster traffic pass. This is not always the case. Try to be patient, or stop for a picture while they get ahead a bit, then you can pass them (without gesticulating wildly) when you get to the next decent stretch of two-lane asphalt.
Don’t assume that every vehicle coming towards you will stop in a passing place so you can go by. Plenty of foreign drivers seem to struggle with the concept and some locals seem to be fed up of waiting for hordes of bikers to go by. Sometimes it’s just safer for you to stop and wait.
‘Make sure you have flexible kit with good waterproofing’