To be fair there are not that many roads in the highlands of Scotland.

Perhaps someone should make an instagram announcement informing English people that Scotland has more than one road.

Yes, the “SW300” is pure marketing bollocks

Very effective marketing bollocks it seems, they just need to name it and your adventure begins.

Very effective marketing bollocks it seems, they just need to name it and your adventure begins.

Will let you know. Dumfries & Galloway is somewhere I’ve wanted to explore for a while, but not had the chance to. Closest I’ve got was a night in a hotel just outside of Dumfries en route to a weekend working in Glasgow back in Feb 2020 just before we locked down… I have a very loose itinerary (hotels and B&B’s are booked for the night, nothing else) and know a few places I want to explore should I get the chance. Also, I have a real hankering to go up to Faslane for some perverse reason (I’m a real anti-nuke guy, but by the same token, the Cold War and Nuclear warfare holds a real fascination for me for some strange reason!). Can’t get over to Arran sadly as all ferries are booked up til Monday, and we only have 4 days, have to be back on Tuesday for yet another one of my Cycling mates’ funerals sadly so having to cut the holiday short against my will…

Oh god, please don’t ruin Dumfries and Galloway as well!

Cycling acquaintance did the NC500 in September in his midlife crisis penis extension F Type, and loved it. Apart from getting stuck when camper van drivers struggled with driving camper vans on small rural roads.

I’m glad I took Mrs FD up that way before the NC500 was invented

Sounds awful now from what your hear.

As to the original post, I can’t see the fun in driving a camper van on those type of roads

I’m sure if OP waits a few years though it will have. Erm changed in to a nice big dual carriageway with McDonalds etc

Big Sands campsite at Gairloch is nice. There’s a really good coffee and book shop on the north side of town.

Off the signposted route the area between Betty Hill and Altnaharra is lovely and there’s lots of interesting signs and wee places to visit that explain the history of the area.

Between there and Lairg (A bit further south) is a bit called the Flow Country which is cool, a giant ancient peat bog.

If you keep heading south you get to Bonar Bridge which has a nice spot to camp in your van looking over the water.

I’ve also quite liked visiting the bit around Golspie and Rogart, nice wee places.

Big Sands campsite at Gairloch is nice.

Yes, yes it is. This was taken on Sunday 😎 We just about had the place to ourselves.

@espressoal

Perhaps someone should make an instagram announcement informing English people that Scotland has more than one road.

I’m fairly sure that your simple comment is well intended and not a sly dig at English people… Maybe you would like to explain why you think it’s English people that need “informing”?

I don’t think anyone is anti tourist or certainly the majority ain’t.

People are wanting responsible tourists theres a difference.

The shift in the type of tourism is what’s changed. People who are not normally outdoorsy are now doing it and are simply not aware of some of the issues that can be generated.

Numbers game isn’t it 100 people one **** 10000 people 100 ****…. so more numbers more issues.

I’d not bother with Dumfries and Galloway tbf its shit😅

Stick a **** tag on it to capture the imagination of the non imaginative and boom

Perhaps someone should make an instagram announcement informing English people that Scotland has more than one road.

Woah there stand down soldier!! I never said one road, I said ‘not many’ ..and it doesn’t. And a convenient mostly coastal ring road is a great way of seeing an area and who says that the majority of the people doing the NC500 are visiting Scotland for the first time – my dad has been a regular visitor for most of his life for example…many will be frequent visitors to Scotland and are doing something different. For those who might be visiting for the first time…then what better advertisement would Scotland want to lure people back to visit again? assuming that is what the Scottish people want of course. Even if visitors are greeted with a congested NC500 then they can separate that from the stunning beauty of the countryside…its not as if the rest of the worlds other beauty spots and tourist attractions are not busy. I think people can cope with that. Not great if you are a petrol head and want the empty roads to ‘make progress’, but that’s what the Nurburgring is for – which for alot living in England is probably a shorter and easier destination to drive to.

By coincidence we’re off for a weekend in Dumfries tomorrow 😀. We’re in a B&B but will be taking the camper for making cuppas. I’m planning to go to Mabie, possibly Dalbeattie too, and also to see if Kircudbright ranges is open, as I’d like to track down the famous (!) Kircudbright Tortoise. I appreciate its not Glencoe but it seems pleasant enough for a wet weekend!

I was fairly keen to do the NC500 next year, but I’ve gone off the idea, mainly I think because it seems to include a lot of places I’ve no real interest in visiting.

If you’ve got months/years spare to explore a place, then hats off to you. The rest of the working world haven’t!

Oh sorry, I hadn’t appreciated you were terminally ill and not expected to be around next year 😉

Or do you want to do the whole of Europe in 2023 so need to tick off Scotland now in a oner so you can press on?

But stuffy NIMBY types like yourself who look down their nose at anyone else wishing to explore their surroundings and expand their horizons despite their limited time and resources are as big a part of the problem

Please take a moment to reread. Yes, there are people complaining about tourists in general but the main thrust of my post was that rushing around like a wazzock getting a glib snapshot is just a shit experience compared with what it could be. Please come, but give yourself time to see beyond the vista of the layby. To do the walks and properly explore.

The main problem with the nc500 is everyone wanting to cover every mile. If the same number of tourist came but focussed on smaller areas there would have a better time and the total road miles covered by ‘incomers’ would also be reduced. Everyone a winner.

IMO there are two related issues with the NC 500
1) simply the pressure of so many visitors – the infrastructure cannot cope
2) people not understanding the rights and responsibilities around scotlands relaxed attitude to camping – they believe its an absolute right not a qualified right – and roadside camping spots are limited leading to folk parking their camper vans in inappropriate places causing huge issues for locals. I know a bloke who lives on the route – he has been blocked into his house on more than one occasion and has been abused for telling folk not to park their camper vans there

English Midlands dweller here. Like a great many of my friends I holidayed in Scotland this year, a motorcycle trip with my Mrs on the pillion seat. I considered the NC500 but was put off by similiar threads to this. I’d done big chunks of it in the past anyway and wanted to avoid the crowds as much as possible.

We had a stop over in D&G on the way up then based ourselves in Blair Athol and did loops from there every day. Considering this was in August in what was probably Scotland’s busiest tourist season for decades it was remarkably quiet. We did 200 mile ish loops every day and the roads were largely empty. Dunno if this is normal or if the NC500 was drawing people away.

There can sometimes be a smidge of an anti English undercurrent on threads like this (not just on STW) or if not anti exactly, stereotyping all English visitors as gawping imbecilic van dwellers who cant drive and don’t contribute to the local economy. Like all stereotypes I suppose there is a grain of truth in it, but the vast majority of people aren’t like that. To be honest it did nearly put me off visiting Scotland at all this year, due to concern that this was the prevailing view towards English visitors generally. That was daft of course, in the non virtual world we encountered nothing of the kind and people were warm and welcoming. It’s a good job the Scots and the English are nothing like they portray themselves and each other on STW in real life! 😉

Seems to me the NC500 is a victim of it’s own success. It’s not entirely the fault of visitors who are simply responding to a highly successful publicity/promotion campaign. Perhaps those who promoted it need to educate visitors about other routes/destinations to spread both the impact and the economic benefits.

in the non virtual world we encountered nothing of the kind and people were warm and welcoming. It’s a good job the Scots and the English are nothing like they portray themselves and each other on STW in real life! 😉

Exactly

The level of pious judgement in the real world is significantly less than online.

There’s a lot of nimbyism and snobbishness around the NC500. We are in exceptional times and due to the staycation stuff numbers have risen considerably so a lot of nice spots that are famous such as Snowdon / Mam Tor / Lakes / Cornwall / NC500 are all way busier than before. But this will all die away once everyone can get away to summer beaches in Spain again. People just need to share the nice stuff in the UK for a little while and be very considerate of each other whilst doing so.

Exactly. Well said. My god there are some pompous, pretentious arses around 😄

Top post from blokeuptheroad. Very reasoned and sensible. It’ll never catch on 😀

My god there are some pompous, pretentious arses around 😄

<checks instagram with tag #NC500>

Agreed 😉

I was motorcycle touring in the area in July and it was great, for me driving a motorhome on some of the smaller roads would not be my idea of a holiday.

It was also not nose to tail campers as people would lead you to believe. Biggest issue was with covid restrictions still limiting the number of people restaurants and pubs could seat, finding somewhere to eat was the biggest problem.

However if the Scotts don’t want my business I can always go back to touring Spain where people are happy to see you.

I have never really understood why people who are able to ride a bike a reasonable distance would chose to tour round a place like The Highlands or Wales in a camper van for a holiday. But we are all different I suppose and one day I may be too old to ride for days and have to go in a car. I guess I’d rather just drive a car to a place and park it up though and stay a while.

I live in a place where a significant increase in visitors has had caused problems over the last two summers.

The main issue isn’t really the number of people but the fact that they all come in cars and vans. The vehicles clog the place up, make noise and stink and make my normal riding about a nightmare as they all want to overtake me to get to the other end of a small peninsula 10 mins quicker. When they get there they turn around and pass some other poor walker or cyclist as they hurry to find a beach car park to queue for.

If they all came on bikes there may be issues associated with a lack of places to stay but the overall impact would be reduced.

I rode up to Durness from Rannoch a few years ago. Mainly off roads and it was great. Then rode on to Thurso mainly on road and the camper vans and touring cars were a bit stressful. I didn’t know much about the NC500 so it confused me as to what was going on but I soon found out whilst chatting to people we met.

So…. I know people will tell me I’m daft but if I were you I’d take a bike up and ride round the place.

I have never really understood why people who are able to ride a bike a reasonable distance would chose to tour round a place like The Highlands or Wales in a camper van for a holiday

I doubt most people who tour in campers are keen cyclists though so your comparing apples and oranges.

We have taken bikes with us on motorhome holidays. The two work very well together. Drive to campsite for a couple of days, relax, ride, relax, hike, relax. Drive to another for a few more days. Its great.

stereotyping all English visitors as gawping imbecilic van dwellers who cant drive and don’t contribute to the local economy

That’s just when we are at home, to be fair. Far, far worse when we are let loose on our holidays.

stereotyping all English visitors as gawping imbecilic van dwellers who cant drive and don’t contribute to the local economy

I’m a proud Scot who sounds English and only relatively recently returned to live here after 46 years away – i.e. everyone’s idea of a knob – so feel qualified to make this comment without prejudice!…..

We have a holiday cottage next door we rent out in the Highalnds but not on the NC500. Most of our worst guests have been central belters. The folk who would rather have been in Spain but were making do. Sat around doing basically nothing apart from drinking from what I can see. Actually those from England (esp South of England) who could be arsed with the 12 hour drive up have been brilliant. Respectful of the cottage, enthusiastic and very active. Your typical outdoorsy types being outdoorsy.