Any suggestions on places to see?

Will be heading from Glasgow and first stop is the ice age landscape near Fort Bill for night 1, then North along the west coast right to the top for something that is being kept a secret from me, then along the top to John O Groats for a photo before we head back south along the east coast.

Leaving on a Thursday lunchtime and back Monday night taking hiking boots and cameras, travelling and sleeping in Vangelina (if I still have her).

All ideas welcome, cheers!

Are you planning to be active or are you going to grockle?

Active with perhaps a bit of tourism but mostly interested in landscape and wildlife.

Drive over the Belach na Ba to Applecross very pretty area.
go round the coast there upto Shieldaig then to Torridon,
From their head for Gairloch pretty town that is worth a look about
For Grockling/beer drinking Ullapool is always good (some pretty good riding there if you look as well) The Ferry Boat inn has excellent food and beer
the Seaforth is good for Fish and chips, beer and often has live music on.
I have cycled to Kylestrom from Ullapool and back – it is a pretty route but North of there I do not know much until you get up to Tongue but friends say Durness is amazing
Tongue and Bettyhill are both lovely with great beach areas/views.

Thanks soulrider!! 🙂 Just what I was after. Hopefully go back myself after this trip with my bikes instead of the mrs! 😉

Pop into Smoo Cave – Durness. Walk up Ben Hope and see the nearby Broch. Walk to Sandwood Bay from near Kinlochbervie. Go to the Mountain Cafe/Bookshop in Gairloch.

For wildlife, you could go to Handa island. Its a nature reserve, north a bit from Ullapool. Loads of birds – skua, puffins etc, and a nice walk round.

Following on from Soulrider’s post
from Fort Bill, follow Am Rahad nam Eilan (Road the the Isles) to Mallaig, ferry over to skye then skye bridge back to the Mainland.
Skye has some awesome walking but is a bit of a tourist trap. That said I stayed at the BandB/Hostel opposite Talisker distillery (New Pier Inn?) and it was fine and reasonably priced (unlike previous stays on Skye). Spectacular – check out Calmac for prices, but around £30 for the car and £5 per adult IIRC. You miss Eilan Donan Castle, but pass Glenfinann and it’s famous (Harry Potter) viaduct – for maximum tourist value, check the Jacobite web site to see if you can get the time when the train is crossing the viaduct.
If it’s Sunday when you’re heading up this way, see if there are any Shinty games on, utterly mental sport and most pitches are in stunning locations. if you’re heading to the Bealach Na Ba, you’ll pass Lochcarron’s ground (west end, on the left as you head out of the village). Game times are on the shinty.com site
Do the Bealach.
Stay at Applecross.
Follow the coast road round to Shieldag.
A few miles south of Ullapool, keep your eyes open for the Corrieshalloch Gorge – signposted.
Achiltibuie is a nice place to stop with spectacular views out over the Summer Isles – a few very pleasant miles away from the main road. We stayed at 192 and it was excellent – reviews on tripadvisor
Along the north coast – just west of Durness is Smoo cave. Pay for the tour, the guide’s a bit weird but the cave system is not what you’ll be expecting.
Dunnet head is the most northerly point on the UK mainland and much, much nicer than john O’Groats which is just a shabby little ***hole.
However, you can get the passenger ferry over to orkney which meets a bus to Kirkwall, probably worth doing even if all you do is get back on gthe bus back to the ferry as the bus passes over the Churchill Barriers and at pretty much any state of the tide you’ll see the wrecks of some of the blockships. Orkney’s worth a stay though IMO. Car is about £50 each way on the Penatlina catamaran from Gills Bay.

EDIT Lochcarron Camanachd in action

EDIT. home via Inverness (dolphin watching on the Moray Firth maybe), then, instead of the A9 straight south, take the Moray coast road to spey bay, then inland to follow the Speyside Whisky Trail to Balmoral, then through Glenshee with some fine Munroes just sitting at the side of the road – Cairn An Turic, Carn of Claise, Glas Maol with Tom Buidhe and Tolmount just behind.

have a look at the Stacks at Duncansby

ditto Whaligoe steps (and marvel at the fact that when it was a fishing harbour women climbed those steps carrying about 1cwt of herring repeatedly)

above is right about J O’ G, and Dunnet Head, gives good views of the Old Man of Hoy , Dunnet beach is nice enough

Pictures would be nice.

Stick to the coast all the way up (using the Mallaig – Skye – Kyle) option referred to above. That misses out Kintail but hey, you can’t have everything.

Leaving Ullapool, take the “wee mad road” of Inverpolly to Achiltibuie and then Lochinver (pie shop). if you’re after a good campsite, then I can recommend Achmelvich.

Heading north again, good food at the Kylesku Hotel (and worth getting out to look at the bridge). Head to Kinlochbervie and past to park up and walk out to Sandwood bay.

Durness gets you to the optional wee ferry and minibus to Cape Wrath, then Smoo Cave. East of there is a bit sparse and wild though there’s an excellent place to park up just out of Tongue. Dunnet Head is worth a diversion and John o’Groats is worth a visit, just to say you’ve been there. It’s been re-developed a bit recently and has improved. Great cliffs and stacks at Duncansby.

Look out for lots of LeJoG, JoGLe folk once you get passed Tongue and all down the A9.

To add a little to the routes suggested by others:

If you go to Achiltibuie, stop at Achnahaird beach for a swim.
Take the wee coast road north and take a run in to and up Suilven from Inverkirkaig
Or if you like the ice age landscape near fortwilliam and fancy a bit more landscape, come back to the main road from Achiltiebuie and visit bits of the highland geopark just south of Elphin
Take the wee coast road from Lochinver north via Stoer and round the S edge of Edrachilles Bay. Then imagine it on bikes.
Stop at Kylesku Hotel for seafood eating
Visit Handa island, road to ferry heads off a few miles N of Scourie.
Walk in to Sandwood Bay
Stop at Torrisdale Bay if you’ve a spare 10 mins.

Edit: 10 mins after Scotroutes – should have known…

Thanks all, don’t think we will visit Skye this time, we have both been there before, and I have been to Orkney, albeit in a plane so not sure about that, it depends on time really. Cape Wrath is on the shortlist already but Handa island sounds brilliant, I will look up all these places and see what we can fit in on this trip. We live in Glasgow so if we don’t manage it all we can try again another time. 🙂 Thanks all!

Just noticed you saying you intend to stay in the van if possible.
If you want to be further north than Scotroute’s Achmelvich suggestion (which is bang on) then the campsite at Scourie is pretty good and 200m from the pub.

TBH, I’d aim for less mileage and plan a return trip. Do the West Coast as far as, say, Kinlochbervie then come back. Next time, head straight up the A9 to where you left off and continue the loop. Might depend on how the weather is and how much time you want to spend out of the van.

yep, aiming to do as much as possible on the west, going along and down is only a possibility and maybe just to jump on th A9 home to speed up the return journey. Lots to be looking over this weekend, thanks, planning this trip over a few drinks tomorrow just got more interesting!