North Coast 500 Supported Cycle Tour

From Inverness to Inverness in 7 days! Join us and cycle Scotland's amazing North Coast 500! Scotland is full of surprises and the Northcoast 500 will send you home with a host of memories that surpass your expectations of this rugged land. Our route largely follows the Scottish Tourist Board 500 mile route (but it’s better ;) and takes in some tough climbs and beautiful mountain passes. This tour is designed for strong cyclists as it has some testing terrain and the added uncertainty of changeable weather conditions too! We recommend you come prepared.

You will be blown away (literally) by the windswept landscape of the north and the purple hue of the bracken and heather; your spirits will soar as you marvel at the remoteness and grandeur of the Lochinver pass and on a sunny day the soft sand of the beaches and the waves on The Minch, surpass many on the Southern European beaches of the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Itinerary

Scotland NC500 Cycle Route & Daily Itinerary

• Day 1 - Arrive Inverness (no cycling)
• ​Day 2 - Inverness to Strathcarron 100 kilometers 640 meters
• Day 3 - Strathcarron to Gairloch 116 km 1,700 m
• Day 4 - Gairloch to Ullapool 108 km 1,400 m
• Day 5 - Ullapool to Durness 147 km 2,200 m
• Day 6 - Durness to Thurso 115 km 1,400 m
• Day 7 - Thurso to Lairg 146 km 1,000 m
• Day 8 - Lairg to Inverness 138 km 900 m
• Day 9 - Depart Inverness (no cycling)

Best Bits of Cycling the Scottish NC 500

• Muir of Ord Whisky distillery (we do pass many others but we have incorporated ‘tasting time’ here into Day One)
• The infamous climb up Beelach Na Ba to Applecross
• Lochinver Larder - The World Famous Scottish Pie Shop
• The Lochinver Pass
• Smoo Cave
• Sandside Bay and the nearby world famous beaches of Achmelvich, Clachtoll, Oldshoremore and Sandwood Bay
• Loch Loyal
• EU funded Timber Haulage Route from Thurso
• The ‘Falls of Shin’ at Lairg
• Johnny Foxes Bar in Inverness (We start and end here. You may remember the start)

The entire route is approximately just under 10,000 metres of climbing elevation. A large part of this is on the western section of the coast line. The route has many sections of stunning scenery with a number of very quiet roads and amazing beaches along the way. With the amount of climbing on this route, we’d recommend something lightweight for your North Coast 500 bike. Whether this is a touring bike or road bike, you’ll be thanking yourself when you climb Bealach na Ba!