NC500 Pocket Map: Plan your adventure on Scotland’s North Coast 500 route official map

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Buchollie Castle – access is across a walkway with sheer 100m drops on each side – don’t try and visit in bad weather!Built by Sweyn Asliefson the notorious pirate and robber in about 1140 and later remodelled by the Mowat Family until 1661. There are also some detours you’ll probably want to avoid, but these are not part of the official route. Here is our suggested 5 day Scottish Highlands itinerary that may help a bit for things to do/see. Although with a baby, you won’t be able to see as much and will need to move at a slower pace each day. We also started this one from Edinburgh but it should hopefully give you some ideas. There are plenty of petrol stations on the route. I suggest filling up regularly as the NC500 is quite remote in places. Petrol stations are marked on my NC500 map. I would make the walk down to Smoo Cave – it is free to see the exterior. You can also do a tour here but that might be a bit too much for the kids.

Since the NC500 is not a single road or highway like Route 66 or the Pacific Coast Highway, you won’t find it on a regular map and your GPS probably won’t know the route. So just to be clear, there is no actual road named North Coast 500 but it is a designated tourist route. It is easy to rent a car from Inverness Airport or downtown Inverness. Main rental car companies include Avis, Budget, Thrifty, Arnold Clark, Europcar, Hertz, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Focus Vehicle Rental. I’d recommend getting the smallest size vehicle you need and to be sure your rental is fully insured. A GPS unit can also be helpful for navigation. Enterprise are usually our favourite for car hire. My wife, Nicole, is in love with trains, and taking the famous steam train ride with the Jacobite is a MUST!

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Distilleries and Breweries. Scotland is well-known for its whisky and just about every visitor to Scotland wants to try at least a dram or two of whisky during his or her trip. But Scotland also has a growing craft beer industry and gin scene and you’ll find a bit of everything along the North Coast 500.

The North Coast 500 is a 516-mile scenic route along Scotland’s northern coast that begins and ends in the city of Inverness, the capital of the Scottish Highlands. We’ve put together this comprehensive North Coast 500 guide to help you plan the perfect North Coast 500 road trip in Scotland. The NC500 is not an actual single road or highway like Route 66 or the Pacific Coast Highway, but is a series of existing roads that form a loop around the northern Highlands.The NC500 route goes near lochs of course (its hard to drive anywhere in the Highlands without this being the case!) but if you can do the drives around Loch Ness and other lochs I think you’d be OK. I’d maybe do a bit of Google Maps research and see what you think so as you look at images of the views from the road – you are closest to the coastline in the northern part of the route. If you have never driven in Scotland before, you’ll want to review some of the driving laws and road safety tips before your North Coast 500 road trip. This is particularly true if you are planning to drive a rental car, caravan, or motorhome. The official North Coast 500 map is no longer being printed (we believe printing ended in 2020) and the organization said it will not be printing any further printed maps (although a digital one is available on their app). This is a shame as it was a great map and very popular and was given out for free at theVisit Scotland Tourism Information Centres along the NC500. Yes, we should definitely add a section to our North Coast 500 guide about traveling with dogs, as I just received a very similar question from a reader looking for dog-friendly hotels along the NC500 🙂 Leakey’s Bookshop – home to thousands of second-hand books, Leakey’s is an Inverness treasure trove.