North Coast 500: How Many Days the 516-Mile Loop Really Needs

Seven days. That is the honest answer for the full 516-mile loop from Inverness, and it still leaves you driving three to four hours most days. Five days works if you accept that you are doing a driving holiday rather than a walking one. Three days is a mistake people make once: you will spend roughly 16 hours behind the wheel, see the road and not much else, and arrive back in Inverness having paid Highland prices for a commute.

The mileage is misleading because the NC500 is two completely different roads wearing one name. The east coast — Wick down to Inverness on the A99 and A9 — is fast two-lane tarmac where you'll average 50 mph. The northwest, from Applecross up to Durness, is single-track with passing places, and there you will average 25 to 30 mph including stops. Same loop, double the time per mile.

What each trip length actually buys you

Days	Miles/day	What you get
3	~170	The road. No hikes, no detours, rushed meals, probably one section driven in the dark.
5	~103	The full loop with short stops. Bealach na Ba, Kylesku, Durness beaches. No spare day for weather.
7	~74	Comfortable. Two or three real walks, a distillery, time when it rains.
10	~52	Side trips: Assynt, Handa Island, Achiltibuie, Dunnet Head, a rest day.

Seven is the number most people wish they had booked. If you only have five, cut the east coast short — drive Wick to Inverness in one go (103 miles, 2h15) and give the saved day to the northwest, which is where the scenery is.

Where the road slows you down

These are the sections that break your schedule. Times assume dry daylight and no caravan in front of you.

Section	Miles	Realistic time	Road
Tornapress – Applecross (Bealach na Ba)	11	40 min	Single-track, 626 m pass, 20% gradients
Applecross – Shieldaig (coast road)	25	1h15	Single-track, constant blind bends
Lochinver – Kylesku (B869, Drumbeg)	24	1h	Single-track, 25% gradients, hairpins
Durness – Tongue (A838)	37	1h10	Mixed, single-track causeway stretches
Ullapool – Lochinver (A835/A837)	37	1h	Two-lane, fast by west coast standards

Passing places are the whole system, and misusing them is the single thing that makes locals hate NC500 traffic. They are for letting oncoming cars through and for letting faster traffic overtake you. If the passing place is on your left, pull in. If it's on your right, stop opposite it and let the other car use it. Never park in one to take a photograph — not for thirty seconds. A raised hand as you pass is the local thank-you and costs nothing.

The other thing that eats time: sheep. Most of the northwest is unfenced common grazing and lambs sleep on warm tarmac. Deer come out at dawn and dusk, and a deer strike will end your trip. Nobody should be driving these roads after dark at speed.

Jim Bain, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Can a small hire car do it?

Yes — and a small car is genuinely better than a large one. A Corsa, Polo or Fiat 500 has room to spare in passing places, fits the Applecross coast road without drama, and climbs Bealach na Ba's 20% gradients in first and second gear without complaint. The pass tops out at 626 m (2,053 ft) with tight hairpins on the eastern side; the constraint is driver nerve and hill-start confidence, not engine power.

What actually struggles: anything over about 6 metres. Bealach na Ba is signposted as unsuitable for large vehicles, caravans and learner drivers, and the signs are not decorative. Motorhomes that ignore them end up reversing 400 metres downhill around a hairpin with a queue behind them. If you've hired a big camper, take the Shieldaig coast road into Applecross instead — it's slower but survivable.

Automatics are fine but use the manual mode or low gear on the descent; riding the brakes for 11 downhill minutes will cook them and you'll smell it before you feel it. If you're on an electric car, plan properly: chargers exist at Ullapool, Lochinver, Durness, Tongue and Thurso, but there are few of them, some are out of service, and the Applecross peninsula has essentially none. Arrive at the pass with charge to spare.

Drive anticlockwise — west coast first. It means you climb Bealach na Ba's hairpins from the Tornapress side and descend the gentler western slope into Applecross. Ascending a 20% hairpin is far easier than descending one.

Fuel, beds and the season

Fuel stations in the northwest are sparse and many close by 6 pm and all day Sunday. Ullapool, Lochinver, Kinlochbervie, Durness, Tongue and Thurso are the reliable ones. Treat a quarter tank as empty, and expect to pay noticeably more per litre than in Inverness. Budget roughly 55–60 litres for the whole loop in a small petrol car.

Paul Hermans, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Accommodation is the real bottleneck. The northwest has a few hundred beds for a route that now draws tens of thousands of cars a year. For June to August, book three to six months ahead; the well-known inns go a year out. Expect £110–170 a night for a double B&B in summer, less in the shoulder.

May and September are the best compromise: long light, thinner traffic, and fewer midges. Midges peak from late June through August and are genuinely trip-affecting on still, damp evenings — carry repellent and a head net if you're camping. June gives you around 18 hours of usable light, which is what makes a five-day loop feasible at all. In December you have roughly seven hours of daylight, Bealach na Ba closes in snow, and the loop stops making sense.

One last practical point: mobile signal disappears for long stretches between Applecross and Durness. Download offline maps before you leave Inverness, and note that satnavs occasionally route you down farm tracks to save a mile. Follow the road signs over the screen.

Manico at English Wikipedia, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons