Travelling the NC500 Road Trip with Children
- Ashleigh
- Jan 20, 2023
- 15 min read
Updated: Jan 22, 2023
When planning the NC500 road trip, you will quickly discover it can be as intense or as laid-back as you please... which for us, was a huge bonus. After months of reading blog posts, travel books and watching you tube videos, we were ready to put our own adventure together and tailor it to suit us as a family.
It is entirely up to you how little or how long you spend at places, and like us, you might find those places which weren't really top of your list become the most undiscovered gems and you find yourself lost in the moment spending hours there!
I have to admit, our favourite parts were those unexpected moments... such as discovering a Scotsman playing bagpipes randomly in a layby overlooking a picturesque loch, and finding a secret hidden puffin cove with thousands of puffins chilling by the turquoise water.
A breakdown of our route, we spent a total of 14 nights on the road:
1 night - Cairngorms/Aviemore
11 nights - NC500 road trip
2 nights - Fort William
Driving time: 47 hours 26 minutes
Distance: 1,204 miles (from door to door, North East of England)
If you have any questions, please ask away, we are over on Instagram @toffee_the_vw
We would also love you to tag us in your own plans and share your own adventures with us :-)
Now, lets get adventuring! Sit back with a cuppa, and enjoy our road trip journey...
DAY 1
We travelled from the North East of England to the Cairngorms and Aviemore region. Arriving late afternoon, we needed to stretch our legs. When researching this trip, we had stumbled across a green loch around this area and although a little walk away, it was worth the trek!
After 5 hours in the car, that is exactly what we needed.... 4km later (in flipflops I may add... not knowing just quite how far it was) we arrived at this beautiful destination... 100% worth the trek (and blisters)!
Green Lochan, Aviemore
After a beautifully refreshing walk, we arrived at our park up for the night. We had pre booked our first stop, quite high up into the mountains, a perfect spot overlooking the valley of loch's with the brightest sunset.... what a way to end a travel day!
DAY 2
After such a beautiful first afternoon in Scotland, we were keen to explore the Cairngorms region a little more before heading up to start our NC500 journey at Inverness. We found a park up by the local loch with its own cove to Loch Morlich, it was a scorching day and so picturesque, we stopped for a picnic while the little ones played by the loch.
After a refreshing dip and some lunch, we headed to the Reindeer Centre which our little boy absolutely loved!! We following a tour guide up into the mountains via steps, windy walkways and beautiful waterfalls (not far... perfectly doable for children, but no good for pushchairs) and fed the reindeer. A perfect day in the cairngorms, before heading to Inverness for our first NC500 stopover!!
We arrived for our first NC500 stopover, the beautiful Fortrose Bay, Inverness. What a pitch and what a view!! We were all very hungry after a full day of adventures and driving, therefore a nice home cooked meal was on the cards.
(see 'vanlife cooking' page for more meal ideas)
After tea, we headed out for a walk towards Chanonry Point lighthouse as the sun was setting, what a sight it was. Chanonry point lighthouse is approx. 1 mile (20 mins) walk from the campsite, it is a very popular dolphin spotting area, we were praying to catch a glimpse! To our surprise the dolphins appeared almost immediately! Incredible!
Even though our journey was only beginning, we thought how could the NC500 possibly top our first 2 days!! ... as you will find out, it certainly did not disappoint!!
DAY 3
We awoke to the brightest blue skies, although we weren't quite ready to leave this beautiful campsite just yet. We wandered down to Chanonry point one last time on the off chance we may see the dolphins again...we weren't the only ones! A small crowd had begun to form around the edge of the sea, and within 10 minutes, there they were... our second sighting of these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat!
We left Fortrose, and headed to our first activity on our NC500 plan... the Fairy Glen waterfalls. The drive along the coast was spectacular (but little did we know the best was yet to come over the next 2 weeks). We arrived at a very small tight car park for the waterfalls, just outside a picturesque village. It was a beautiful walk, a 4k round trip, but we did feel it was quite underwhelming (maybe because my young ones were expecting actual fairies to appear!!). It may have been the lack of rainfall over the previous few weeks, as the waterfall wasn't as 'full' as expected, but overall a beautiful walk.
We then headed an hour down the road to Dornoch beach and visited the Cocoa Mountain Café on route to sample their famous hot chocolate - I can say, it was certainly up there with one of the best hot chocolates I have ever had (and if you know me - you know how much I LOVE hot chocolate!). Dornoch beach itself was so gorgeous with pale fresh looking sand, however it was far too windy for us to venture to the sea. After driving through the golf course, we parked up in the large carpark which had plenty space (also a small café on site), and headed over the road to the children's playground area, which was situated just before the sand dunes leading to the beach. It had slides, swings, wooden and metal musical instruments, as well as sunken trampolines, the kids had a great time! We didn't stay long, and headed back over the golf course to our next point of interest on route, Dunrobin Castle!
We did not get out out of the van at Dunrobin Castle, because by this point, the little ones were exhausted! We had crammed so much into the first few days of our road trip, as well as all of the driving, therefore us adults were feeling a little exhausted too. We had planned on wild camping tonight which we found on our favourite app 'park4night', but we decided against driving any further, and rang ahead to see if there was space at Brora Beach Caravan and Motorhome club site (as we are members of the Caravan & Motorhome club), luckily they had 2 spaces left!! It was right on golf course, which you could walk over to the beach. Due to the wind and the very busy day, we didn't venture far, therefore we settled down for the night, cooked dinner and watched a movie.
DAY 4
The next morning, we packed up and headed to Walligoe steps - wow - what an experience! The weather was on our side and it was just beautiful. It is very easily missed, therefore make sure you have the sat nav on, there are only about 6 car parking spaces behind a small row of terrace houses. At 360 steps down, it was the most amazing cove. We climbed down, the sun was sparkling on the waters edge, and the wind had calmed down. At the bottom, some other tourists has created stone statues and we noticed a few dead birds surrounding them, therefore we didn't stay long. We had heard before starting the route that Scotland was having issues with many dead birds around the coast, we did unfortunately see a lot of this on route.
Back up to the top, and back on the road to Old Wick Castle and a lunch break stop. When we arrived, we didn't really find it very interesting on first look, a very old ruin just standing alone, therefore we eat lunch before leaving the van for a quick look around. That was until we started to walk around the ruins... once again, a little unexpected surprise, the most picturesque cove, and were convinced we saw puffins on the rocks, but unfortunately I didn't have my camera to zoom in closer.
We then headed to our second castle of the day, Castle Sinclair. There was much more to explore at this one, and the little ones even found a dainty cove to sit at and watch the sea lap up on the sides of the rocks. If you google it, the history of the castle makes for a very interesting read!
After that, we headed for the obligatory John O'Groats signpost photo! Yup, we headed there JUST for the photo! Luckily it was quite late in the day to there were no queues. We had heard that there wasn't much to see or do there... but actually we were pleasantly surprised, we found it beautiful. It was a very clear day, therefore we could see right over to the Orkney Islands. Many people believe this is the most northern point in the UK... we did too until researching for this trip... that part was yet to come the following day!
We headed to our next pre-booked campsite, which was right on the beach, where we chilled by the van and cooked, if you hadn't already realised by now...our favourite ending to a day full of adventure!
DAY 5
By day 5 we had reached the top of the country!! Today we headed to the northern most point of the UK, Dunnet Head lighthouse... it was soooo windy!! We were still on our search for puffins, we waited a while but no luck. We took a few pictures and headed back to the van, there was not much to see here, but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to be at the very top of the country, even for a quick snap!
We headed back on the road to Thurso... and our first highland coo sighting on route!
NOTE: Food stop! Thurso had a Tesco, therefore we stopped here to stock up for the next part of the journey, food stores are few and far between on route so it is definitely worth stocking up while you can.
We were determined to find puffins! When researching this trip, I did find one place that was apparently almost guaranteed puffins at this time of year (August), it took quite a while to find, and was quite an experience getting there... over heather fields, down huge cliffs and over a waterfall...but the destination was sooo worth the trek... WOW hundreds of thousands of puffins greeted us!
On the way to our next campsite we stopped off at Strathy beach and also drove past Farr beach, both are equally as stunning! Then we arrived at our next stop for the night at Kyle of Tongue. We had a perfect pitch overlooking the sea! We noticed no one was cooking, which was a bit unusual at campsites. We proceeded to get out our cooking equipment, started cooking and that when we realised why we were the only ones... MIDGES! Our first real experience of the little horrendous mites! I only wish I had taken photos of how bad they really were, none of us have experienced anything quite like it! We headed indoors for the rest of the night and could not wait to leave the following morning! (you will be pleased to know that was our one and only experience of midges the whole trip!)
DAY 6
SANGO SANDS! Need I say more? If you are planning this trip, Sango is a MUST stopover. It was not a bookable site and adhered to a first come first serve basis for pitches. Knowing 11am was the best time to get a spot... we headed straight there. Did we get a pitch? Not only did we get a pitch, in my opinion, we got the most perfect pitch on the site, right beside the sea with panoramic views throughout every window of the van! WOW this was the best park up we have ever had... I will allow the photos to speak for themselves...
We began to realise we needed a few chill days, the little ones had experienced so much in a short space of time, we felt they needed to slow down and just have no plans for a little while. We loved this site so much, that we stayed for 2 nights and could have easily stayed for longer! It was nice not to pack up the van and move, we played on the beach, splashed in the sea, had a picnics, drank wine, went for late night walks and just had the best family time. We also headed to the neighbouring beach, Ceannabeinne beach, where you can zipline over the waters at 45mph. My daughter did not meet the minimum weight that day to match the winds (the weight restrictions change daily depending on the weather) therefore we headed back to play on the beach instead.
Day 7
After deciding not to move our van today, we headed to Smoo Caves, which was only a short walk away. On the way we past the famous Cheese'n'toasted shack which we had heard a lot about, the little ones tried one and loved it.
We continued the short walk to the caves, they were amazing! The boat tours were unable to run due to the winds but it was still amazing to see inside the caves with the waterfall cascading through. The sun glistened through the openings, making rainbow patterns on the water. Once we had finished in the caves we went for a walk over the cliffs, the views were spectacular! The very top of beautiful Scotland, it was amazing!
We headed back to the van and down to the beach to play in the sea. The wind was picking up again, but that didn’t stop us. Another gorgeous day!
DAY 8
After two wonderful nights, we headed to Scourie. On the way the weather was taking a turn for the worst, we drove by Balnekiel beach and soaked up the views. We went through Durness and Lairg and even took a 8 mile detour through Kinlochbervie, simply because we saw a sign to say 'for a beautiful 8 miles coastal road drive follow this route' on the side of the road. That's the best part about the NC500, there are no set plans, expect the unexpected and take those random roads!
The weather was beginning to deteriorate, so we went to check into our campsite for the night, Scourie Caravan park. It was right by the sea in a beautiful location but unfortunately we did not get to see it in it's best light, it was our worst day and night so far, the rain bucketed and the wind blew a gale!
Once we secured our pitch, we headed to the infamous Kylesku bridge where we tried the Surf'n'Turf food shack, delicious food!
We then headed to a wet and windy Wailing widow waterfall walk. We didn’t realise there was no real path, so that was interesting. The most incredible waterfall when we got there, but it was one huge trek, in the stream, over rocks in mud etc, very challenging for the kids in rain and wind but they loved it!
DAY 9
We set off to Clashnessie, but on our way found a lovely little café in the middle of nowhere and had a scone and hot chocolate. These little finds are the best!
Clashnessie beach and Clashnessie falls were beautiful. The waterfall was tricky to get to again, very wet and muddy but we loved the trek and adventure!
After the waterfalls we headed to our campsite, Clachtoll Beach. I had heard a lot about this site and luckily we had managed to secure a cancellation the day before (it's almost always fully booked in peak season). When we arrived, the owner showed us around and there was so much to do. Free beach equipment, SUP boards, kayaks, waterproofs, kids wetsuits, washers, kettles, everything to use free of charge, even a herb wall for cooking etc. on the evenings they had an open fire, and food.
DAY 10
Today we left Clachtoll Campsite, brilliant site. We headed to Achmelvich beach but the weather was cloudy and rainy. We parked up in the car park and found Rangers hut, where the kids drew pictures and looked at the shells and fossils found on the beach.
Then we headed to Lochinver to taste the famous pies! Lochinver itself is quite small from what we could see but has the most spectacular views, so picturesque.
On route we drove past Ardveck castle, we parked up but couldn’t walk right up to it as it had been raining so much, that the two lochs had joined and the path was covered. People were crossing the water to get to it, but it would have been half way up my little boy's body if we had tried... so we just looked on from a distance.
We then made our way to Knockan Craig which was a rocky mountain walk. We climbed and learnt about the history. It was worth the trek for again the most amazing views.
Then we approached Ullapool ready for our stopover. We pitched up in a hotel car park which we had pre booked and wandered into town. What a place, right on the harbour, there was a cruise ship ready to set sail, and the yachts with the backdrop of the mountains just took our breath away! So picturesque it was beautiful. We had a chippy tea and ice cream before heading in for the night.
DAY 11
Today we headed out to Corrieshalloch Gorge. A naturally formed gorge with a suspension bridge over 100 meters above the air, only 6 people were allowed on at one time. Then we headed to Inverewe Gardens, which was an hour down the road, to stop for a picnic.
We then drove through Gairloch which was a small town and headed to our next stop over, Sands camping and caravan site. The site was huge! It had a play park, onsite takeaway, shop, games room etc. different from all other campsite we have experienced on route. We parked just under the sand dunes as we knew it was going to be a windy night. It was right on the beach, therefore we set up, and went for a wander over the sand dunes to fly a kite, collect shells and watch the wind surfers.
DAY 12
Today we set off to Victoria falls, our last waterfall of the trip, just a very short stop and short walk from the car park, which was a pleasant surprise after some very long treks! We then went to the Beinn Eighte Nature Reserve and had a picnic by the loch. We skipped the hikes here (of which there were many) because we wanted to get to our next and final NC500 challenge the Bealach na ba!
On the way, we found the car park which Callum the stag patrolled, he was right there at the entrance waiting for us. Callum is quite famous on this route for hovering around this car park. It's quite important not to touch or feed him, however so amazing to see!
THE BEALACH NA BA… what a road!! The first mile was absolutely fine, but then we started to see the clouds setting in as we got higher and higher! Eventually we were in the clouds and could not see a hand in front of us. The cars coming the other way on the single track road were on top of us before we saw each other, there was a lot of reversing near cliff edges, what an experience!!!! We then arrived at Applecross, the sky was blue, the water was turquoise, a beautiful fishing village, definitely worth the trip.
We then headed to Lachcarron which was such a beautiful place and stayed at The Wee campsite, a lovely family run site for our last night on the NC500 route... it had been so amazing we really did not want it to end!
DAY 13
This was our final NC500 stop before heading to Fort William today (our very final destination). But there were still two places we really wanted to visit.
We headed to the first, Manuela's Bakery and Distillery. What a quirky bakery!! We loved exploring and we got a few bakes to eat over the next couple of days. A bacon and cheese cookie, a Mediterranean olive cookie, a raspberry cookie, a nutella croissant and a huge rocky road. They even had their own gin distillery.
Once we had explored there we headed around the corner to Eileen Donan Castle… wow! What a castle! Very touristy, but amazing! We didn’t pay the £3 per person to go over the bridge to the castle, just saw it from the distance which was just as nice.
Then came the road to Fort William and what a drive it was! Spectacular scenery, driving alongside train tracks and a train itself, with the mountains in the background - wow!
We saw a beautiful loch on the way and pulled into a layby to take some photos when to our amazement there was a man playing bagpipes!!! What a backdrop, what a view, just surreal and amazing!
What a day, what a drive!!
We arrived at Glen Nevis Camping and Caravan site and secured a pitch under the spectacular Ben Nevis view! Beautiful location, we were staying here 2 nights for our final stay in Scotland...we really didn't want this trip to end. On the night we wandered to the start of the Ben Nevis trail, which was only 5 mins walk and found a little stream too to cool down in.
DAY 14
We woke up to clear skies and beautiful sunshine, it was 28 degrees in Scotland! … and my husband had decided to climb Ben Nevis! He set off early morning so me and the little ones were riding solo today… only one problem, I had no internet, no signal and nothing to give me directions apart from a paper map! Not something I'm used too!
After a few wrong turns, and asking in petrol stations, we arrived at Glen Nevis mountain Range Gondolas! The only gondola in the UK and cable cars up the 8th highest mountain in the UK. The day pass allowed unlimited journeys up and down the mountain. We were all apprehensive, it was so high, but loved it! The café at the top had stunning views! There was a walk further up higher into the mountains but we were hot so we stuck to the gondolas.
On the way back to our site, still with no phone signal or map, we noticed a sign for canals, so we parked up and headed for the lochs just as the sailing boats were entering. A brilliant experience for the little ones as the cars came to a haul and the road opened to allow the yachts to pass.
Back at the campsite, we settled down for our final night, cooking tea and watching the stars under the clear nights sky, reflecting on such a wonderful trip.
We felt like it had exceeded our expectations, everything we wished for and more... we would 100% recommend it to anyone!
If you have enjoyed our journey and are thinking about heading to Scotland to discover the NC500 for yourself, I have spent time creating a map of all our stops for you to discover these places for yourself.
Please see the link below for postcodes and pin points to castles, lochs, campsites, points of interest and much more to help you on your own journey...
Where did you eventually see the puffins?