A Solo Road Trip Around the North Coast 500: What I Learned

The question came from a woman filling up at the pump beside mine, somewhere south of Ullapool. Wasn't I nervous, driving all that way on my own? I said no, which was mostly true, and then spent the next forty miles working out the honest answer.

The North Coast 500 isn't a single road. It's a loop of just over 500 miles that starts and finishes in Inverness, running up the west coast, along the top of the country and back down the east. Plenty of people drive it; most do it in company. I did it alone, over nine days in late May, and I'd do it again — with a few changes.

Deciding to go alone

I'd wanted to drive the route for years. What I kept waiting for was a companion: someone with the same week free, the same tolerance for long days and the same appetite for a mediocre sandwich in a car park. That person never appeared. At some point it becomes obvious that the trip you keep postponing is the one you could simply take.

Going solo changed the shape of the journey more than I expected. There's nobody to negotiate with when the cloud lifts over a bay and you want to stop for twenty minutes. There's also nobody to take the wheel when you're tired, and nobody to say "that looks like the turn" when the sign is half-hidden in a hedge. Both things matter. I'd rather have the first than lose the trip entirely.

The route, and why I stopped planning it hour by hour

My first itinerary was a spreadsheet, with an estimated arrival time against every leg. It lasted until day two, when I spent an hour sitting above a beach because the light was doing something ridiculous and I couldn't make myself leave.

Plan in blocks instead of days. Decide where you'll sleep for the next two or three nights and leave the middle loose. Roads in the far north-west are slower than the map suggests — a stretch that looks like ninety minutes can easily take three — and building in slack stops you watching the clock all week.

Booking ahead, but not too far ahead

In summer, accommodation along the north and west coasts genuinely does fill up, sometimes months in advance. Book the nights you can't afford to lose — a Saturday, or a village with only two options — and leave a couple of gaps for places you fall for on the way. I booked roughly half of mine and never struggled to find something for the rest, though I was outside the school holidays and accepted a couple of nights in a bunkhouse.

Driving single-track roads without losing your nerve

Most of the west coast section is single-track: one lane, with passing places cut into the verge. On the Bealach na Bà, climbing to Applecross, that includes hairpin bends and a gradient that makes you grateful for first gear. It isn't difficult, but it is unfamiliar if you've never driven roads like it.

The rules are simple, and everyone expects you to follow them:

• If a passing place is on your left, pull into it and let the oncoming vehicle through.
• If it's on your right, stop opposite it and let the other driver use it.
• Give way to traffic coming uphill, which has momentum to keep.
• Never park in a passing place, even briefly.
• Let faster local traffic past. They know the road and you don't.

The small thing that made the biggest difference: lifting a hand off the wheel to acknowledge the other driver. Almost everyone does it, and it turns a tense manoeuvre into something much friendlier.

The bits nobody warns you about

Midges deserve their own paragraph. On the west coast, on a still, damp evening between roughly May and September, they can make standing outside your car genuinely miserable. Take repellent, keep the windows shut at dusk, and don't plan an alfresco dinner unless there's a breeze.

Fuel needs thought once you're past Ullapool. Stations are sparse, and some are small, unmanned or shut on Sundays. Fill up whenever you see a pump and the tank is anywhere near half; it's a habit worth copying. Read your breakdown cover before you go, too — some policies have limits that catch people out in remote areas.

Phone signal comes and goes. Download offline maps for the whole route before you leave. And then there are the sheep: they don't move predictably, and there will be a lot of them.

Staying safe, fed and sane on your own

Solo driving is mostly about small disciplines rather than big precautions. The things that got me through:

• Tell someone your rough plan each morning, even if it's a text from a petrol station forecourt.
• Keep water and food in the car. Villages close early and the next one is often further than you think.
• Stop

  Photo: Pexels / Pixabay