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This previous spring, after I pointed my automobile out of Inverness to start a loop round Scotland’s craggy northern shoreline, I used to be anticipating bother forward. A decade in the past, when the North Highland Initiative — a growth charity arrange below then-Prince Charles — renamed the circuit the North Coast 500 and began selling the drive to vacationers, I had been unconvinced it could work. I accepted of any initiative geared toward drawing extra guests to a uncared for a part of my homeland, however recasting the ramshackle roads of the North Highlands as a fascinating vacation spot appeared like a stretch.
Back then, the considered the drive evoked reminiscences from half a century earlier than — of me and my nauseated siblings squashed inside a rusty Ford station wagon because it rolled by way of mile after mile of monotonous moorland. Also dampening my enthusiasm have been recollections of the meals endured in my 20s when introducing my girlfriend of the time to the area. She got here up from England anticipating langoustines leaping out of creels and venison from stags gralloched, or disembowelled, the place they fell on a close-by mattress of purple heather. More usually than not, within the late Eighties and early Nineties, she needed to accept deep-fried scampi and frozen peas, garnished with a smear of tartare sauce squeezed from a plastic sachet.
Yet the concept of creating these overfamiliar highways and hostelries the theater for epic highway journeys labored. As a promotional transfer, the North Coast 500 was a masterstroke — an excessive amount of of 1, by most accounts. Thanks to the alchemy of selling and social media, the 516-mile (830-kilometer) circuit, which begins and finishes in Inverness, became an irresistible, Instagram-friendly pilgrimage for folks world wide, overwhelming the flexibility of the growing old and underpopulated area, and its roads, to deal with the pilgrims.
Locals started dropping endurance with what occurred subsequent: Nose-to-tail motorhomes on single-track roads, grill dads scorching seafront meadows with disposable barbecues, in all places turning into an open-air bathroom. A decade after its launch, the NC500 is now seen as a textbook case of overtourism. At the tip of final yr, Fodor’s Travel added the NC500 to its 2025 “No List” of locations it recommends avoiding, on the grounds that the route’s recognition had made it a menace to the pure surroundings and a “nuisance” to roadside communities.
But has all of it been dangerous? When I drove the route, primed for a go to to a tourism-ravaged panorama, what I found was as a lot a case for the protection of the much-maligned highway journey as an indictment of its damaging influence.
No tarmac was melted within the making of the digital phenomenon of the NC500. The roads are hardly any higher below their new identify than they have been within the a long time earlier than the North Highland Initiative got here up with the concept of selling them as a vacation spot, or a problem, in themselves.
Even so, the rechristened route captured the creativeness of journey writers and customer numbers quickly started to rise. Everyone appeared to heap reward on the route. No one talked about the annoying swarms of tiny biting midges that plague Scotland’s west coast in the summertime.
As the constructive publicity snowballed by way of the years, I started to search out myself lured by ideas of revisiting locations with names as romantically resonant as Durness, Ullapool and Applecross. The Covid pandemic intervened earlier than I had the chance to dwell out that daydream and by the point Britain had emerged from lockdowns, the picture of the NC500 had modified.
The founders imagined showcasing a Scotland of sea eagles hovering above secret coves and singing sands. When they envisioned sights that may linger for a lifetime within the thoughts’s eye, they didn’t keep in mind little pagodas of dirty moist wipes used to cowl the bathroom tracks of untamed campers caught brief miles from the closest public restrooms.
When Richard and Jane Alcorn moved seven years in the past to Thurso, close to the northeastern tip of Scotland’s mainland, to open a mattress and breakfast, being near the NC500 was a part of why they selected the placement. That choice has been rewarded with regular development in guests to their cosy Aurora B&B, however Richard says he understands why a few of his fellow residents have come to resent the route.
“Initially the idea was for people to come in their cars, stay in local accommodation, buy from local restaurants and use local facilities. It was an admirable idea and we have seen the benefit of that,” he mentioned. “What you’ve seen since the second lockdown is people trying to have a freebie holiday. More and more caravans and camper vans, people parking up in lay-bys and trying to do it on the cheap. You can see why people get upset with camper vans parking in front of their living room windows, and then there’s the abuse they get when they ask them to move on.”
Thousands of individuals signed as much as Facebook pages devoted to chronicling such dangerous conduct. A backlash gathered momentum. As did misgivings concerning the NC500 model passing from royal patronage to personal possession: Since 2018, North Coast 500 Ltd has been below the management of Anders Holch Povlsen, a Danish billionaire and Scotland’s greatest landowner.
I used to be questioning about this as an old style buddy and I set off on a drizzly Sunday in late April. Our first cease was Dingwall, a small city positioned in wealthy farming land to the north of Inverness that I keep in mind from my childhood because the well-manicured residence of a late aunt and uncle.
Lunch choices have been sparse and, on the High Street, the boarded-up shell of the semi-derelict Commercial Bar was an eyesore reminder that the city has identified higher instances because it was based as a Royal Burgh licensed by the Scottish Crown exactly 999 years in the past. A little bit of overtourism won’t be the worst factor that could occur right here, I assumed, not for the final time on our journey.
For the primary two-thirds of our journey, we squinted on the views by way of a misted-up windscreen and wipers on full swipe, failing to identify any proof of vacationers making a nuisance of themselves. There have been loads of camper vans on the roads, however it appeared to be too early within the season for the site visitors jams and blocked ambulances the Facebook websites had primed me to anticipate. Over 4 days, the one time we bought caught behind a slow-moving automobile, the offender was the clearly misplaced driver of a superstore home-delivery van.
Tourism can be an straightforward scapegoat for issues it didn’t create and can’t be anticipated to repair, I assumed as we become the Old School restaurant and rooms on the banks of the fjord-like Loch Inchard on the North West Sutherland coast. Like most of the institutions on the NC500, this place has been geared to turning round most of its six bedrooms nearly day-after-day. Guests are inspired to examine in between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., eat dinner between 6 p.m. and eight p.m., breakfast by 9 the next morning and be passed by 10 a.m.
The mannequin could make it really feel like “regimented and rushed” has succeeded “rough and ready” because the go-to descriptor for Highland hospitality. But any fears I had have been dispelled by just a few glasses of purple wine and a stew of domestically shot venison of the sort my girlfriend and I could solely dream of again within the day.
In the morning, the Old School’s proprietor, Lisa MacLeod, shared her ideas on the influence of the NC500, beginning with an facet of tourism that typically will get forgotten within the prices/advantages debate — the pleasure it has delivered to those that would possibly by no means have visited with out it, and the sense of delight and satisfaction that gives to hosts.
“Obviously there are negative parts to it, but generally all these people get to see this most amazing part of the world that they probably wouldn’t have known about otherwise,” she mentioned.
While the NC500 has been good for her seasonal enterprise, MacLeod says it was at all times unrealistic to anticipate tourism alone to repair large points such because the tendency of younger folks to depart the realm for alternatives — or simply the joy — on supply elsewhere. “The majority of people who live here either work offshore in the oil industry, or on the fish farms which bring a lot of young families in,” MacLeod mentioned. “The hotels and the B&Bs are not really what makes the money.”
After a standard Scottish fried breakfast, we set off to identify puffins, skuas and razorbills on Handa Island, the place the solar appeared for the primary time on our journey, splitting the clouds to gentle up the wildlife reserve’s beautiful bays in azure hues extra often related to the Caribbean.
By the time we rolled into the close by coastal village of Scourie just a few hours later, it was correctly heat and we have been ravenous. Which was effectively timed as a result of right here, on the backside of one of many steep slender smallholdings, often called crofts, that run all the way down to the bay is the type of all-day Scottish eating venue I’d been fantasising about for many years.
As we stroll as much as Grant and Heather Mercer’s Crofters Kitchen meals truck there’s a hum of quiet contentment from the encircling picnic tables and the sight of Heather updating the daily-changing specials blackboard is equally reassuring. Grant, a 33-year-old with 17 years of expertise below his head chef’s hat, has simply taken supply of some wild halibut from a neighborhood fisherman and, hours after it was landed, it’s going straight on the menu.
It is simply the type of factor this veteran of Scotland’s long-hours hospitality tradition envisaged himself doing when he and Heather first determined to embark on this enterprise enterprise. Their objective was to spend extra time collectively as a household, whereas making the most of the demand generated by the NC500’s success to serve up the type of domestically sourced, seasonal fare that is still the exception quite than the rule in these elements.
The halibut, grilled to moist, flaky perfection and served with orzo pasta in a wild garlic pesto, is likely one of the nicest issues I’ve ever eaten in Scotland. How lengthy I’d waited for this! As we ate, the Mercers’ 15-month previous son was toddling about. With his blond hair, he jogged my memory of my oldest boy at that age. My son’s mom, the girlfriend with the aversion to scampi suppers, died all of the sudden 20 years in the past, and I felt a stab of unhappiness that she was not right here to benefit from the scene.
Like the NC500, the Crofter’s Kitchen was celebrating an anniversary. It’s one yr because it opened and the Mercers have been basking in five-star opinions whereas planning the following stage of their field-to-fork journey — utilizing a authorities enterprise grant to transform a delivery container into indoor seating to serve meals all yr spherical, bringing extra tourism income into the local people.
“As well as sourcing all the seafood locally, we produce a lot of our own vegetables and we also buy salads from other crofters, pork, and venison that’s been shot on their land that I’ll help them butcher,” Grant instructed me.
“The container will allow us to open almost all year round which will be great for the locals especially in the winter when there is not much open around here. The nearest Chinese takeaway is in Ullapool, a good 45-minute drive away.”
I do know from my very own expertise of dwelling in one in every of Scotland’s moist and windy corners that infrastructure isn’t just about parking locations and clean roads. A gentle stream of tourists can be the distinction between a neighborhood retailer with barely stuffed cabinets and one laden with sudden selections. As Grant Mercer factors out, each halibut delivered by hand to the Crofter’s Kitchen is a fish that isn’t being loaded onto a truck for export — an financial pivot that balances the influence of the NC500’s vacationers in opposition to the environmental prices of the area’s participation in a globalized fishing trade.
Heading in a counterclockwise course, as we did, the highway south of Scourie is the place the route is at its most breathtaking.
Long earlier than anybody had considered the NC500 idea, the mountains of Assynt and the Applecross peninsula have been a favoured vacation spot for golf equipment of traditional automobile homeowners. It was straightforward to grasp why as we glided in direction of our remaining in a single day cease on meandering corniches lined by banks of sun-drenched flowering gorse. James Bond’s Aston Martin would be match for the timeless magnificence of those vistas however even in my barely bashed Volvo, I had the nice feeling that I would be starring in a industrial for a fancy watch model.
These sections of the route are endowed with such stunning pure property, it made me replicate on how the NC500 idea has additionally helped entice guests to neighboring areas much less blessed within the seems to be division. I additionally questioned why they weren’t inundated with vacationers and the related pressures a long time in the past — had they been, maybe the infrastructure now coming below pressure would possibly have already got been upgraded.
Precise knowledge on the financial influence of the NC500 is tough to pin down and infrequently contested, however most analysts agree that the route has helped increase customer numbers within the broader Highland area (up from 5.1 million in 2012 to eight.4 million in 2023, in keeping with the native council), whereas vacationer spending has grown much less rapidly (from £1.38 billion to £1.68 billion in the identical interval.).
Go toScotland, the nationwide tourism physique, says the NC500 has undeniably raised the area’s worldwide profile and drawn in additional guests to the good thing about the native economic system.
“The global attention of the route has created some challenges, and we know there is a careful balance to strike between the benefits that tourism brings and ensuring communities feel comfortable and capable of welcoming visitors,” a spokesman mentioned, highlighting the physique’s efforts to unfold tourism over the entire yr, encourage longer stays and plug infrastructural gaps uncovered by elevated vacationer numbers.
Since 2018, Go toScotland has distributed £20 million, or about $27 million, by way of a Scottish authorities fund to develop rural tourism infrastructure, together with many tasks across the NC500, like parking, public bathrooms and motorhome services, the spokesman mentioned.
Such efforts have but to influence the skeptics that the route’s issues can be mitigated and not using a discount in guests. According to the journey consultants at Fodor’s, the influence of NC500-led overtourism is now so extreme it’s “steadily changing the region’s culture,” whereas a current article within the New York Times was headlined: “Should You Drive Scotland’s ‘Ultimate Road Trip?’ Locals Say Maybe Not.”
Our journey left me unpersuaded — particularly on condition that round one in seven of the area’s jobs depend upon tourism. Even if it have been true that the tradition of the Highlands is being re-sculpted by the invisible hand of tourism, would that essentially be a foul factor?
Our remaining lodge on the route offered an reply of types. It was the one one I’d been capable of finding in a 30-mile radius providing two single rooms for below $200 an evening and my coronary heart sank as we checked in — the lodge’s public bar revealing itself as a grim haven from the sensible sunshine, the place the early night crowd fashioned a miserable tableau of Scotland’s public well being challenges.
Inspecting my closet-sized room, I clocked the polyester sheets and fraying carpet, however failed to identify that I’d be destined for a daybreak wake-up because of the absence of correct curtains.
Later on, preparing for dinner in a nicer spot, we bumped right into a former supervisor of the lodge and fell into good-humoured dialog concerning the lack of gentrification at his previous place of employment.
“It’s a bit of a rough old place,” I mentioned.
“Mmm,” he replied. “You should see it when the fishermen are in.”