MuxarilNorth Coast 500 Guide
The full loop

Five stages, driven clockwise from Inverness Castle.

The NC500 doesn't have an official day-by-day split — it's one continuous 516-mile loop. The five stages below follow the natural break points most drivers actually stop at, so you can combine or split them to fit however many days you have. All figures are approximate: coastal single-track roads mean the same "distance" can take very different times depending on traffic, weather, and how many passing places you queue behind.

Single-track coastal road along a Wester Ross sea loch
Stage 1 of 5

Inverness → Applecross

~95 miles. The Bealach na Bà climb and Scotland's most isolated west-coast village.

  • Inverness-shire → Wester Ross
 Stage 2 of 5

Applecross → Ullapool

~120 miles via the coast road. Torridon, Gairloch, Inverewe Garden.

  • Wester Ross
 Stage 3 of 5

Ullapool → Durness

~75 miles. Assynt's isolated peaks, Ardvreck Castle, the longest fuel gap on the route.

  • Sutherland
 Stage 4 of 5

Durness → John o' Groats

~85 miles. Smoo Cave, the Kyle of Tongue, and the long peat-moor run north.

  • Sutherland → Caithness
 Stage 5 of 5

John o' Groats → Inverness

~115 miles. Wick, Dunrobin Castle, Dornoch, and Easter Ross's whisky coast.

  • Caithness → Easter Ross
Add it up
~490–516 mi total, direction-dependent
Pure driving time
Roughly 13–15 hours behind the wheel
Realistic pace
One stage a day undersells it — most drivers want a rest day inside two of the five