There's a party atmosphere around the lighthouse at Chanonley Point, near Inverness. This is the best place in the UK to see dolphins from land. He is an hour after low tide, and there are pipers, picnickers, and children running barefoot on the long sandy beach in the evening. Even in late spring, the sun rarely seems to set in the highlands. Seaweed-studded pebbles glisten as you walk along one side of the headland from the bus stop near Fortrose Cathedral (take his 26/26A bus from Inverness). No dolphins appear. But somehow it's okay. This is the first of many reasons to come back. It's still light as I walk along the beach, admiring wild lupines and views of Fort His George, pink clouds over the Murray Firth, until my 9pm bus ride back. I'm in Inverness at the beginning of the week, exploring Scotland's wild north coast by train and bus.
The North Coast 500 is a victim of its own success. Designed in the style of America's Route 66 in 2015, this 516-mile round trip through northern Scotland attracts thousands of motorists and campers each year through narrow roads with narrow passageways. Local residents complain that real estate prices are soaring due to the route's popularity, and talk about it around the NC500 race. Some cyclists travel all or part of their route by bicycle. Some explore by public transport or on foot. It takes a little planning. I'm used to the mild irritation of missing the hourly bus. Missing weekly events is another matter. But before that, an epic train journey awaits you.
The Far North Line is his four-hour journey from Inverness to Thurso, winding through coasts, forests, moors and mountains (advance tickets £16 each way, scotrail.co.uk). At one end of his Cromarty Firth, one of his three great estuaries, tall grass is lined with reeds, waterfowl and hares. The other end is littered with abandoned oil rigs, which are towed here when not needed in the North Sea. High above the vast blue of the Firth of Dornoch, Skibo Castle, the massive mansion that was the home of Scottish steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, is easily recognizable. Then, as you pass Dunrobin Castle, you can see the half-timbered station building and the tower above the trees. The railway runs along the sea between Brora and Helmsdale, passing miles of deserted sandy beaches and cliffs filled with cormorants.
In the middle of a marshy stream, we stop at Forcinado. The old station building is now his RSPB visitor centre, with paved paths leading through bird-filled rocklands. A few children walking along the road happily wave at the train, and a deer runs past the window. Bloch, Bloch, Hut Circle and Cologne are present on the Gothic map. Usually all you see is a circular sheepfold that has just been destroyed, but it is clear that this is a vast and ancient landscape. Thurso's North Coast Visitor Center has intricately carved Pictish stones and Viking shield bosses.
After a 30-minute drive through cottongrass bogs with sparkling lakes, you'll arrive in Melvich on bus 803. Walk through the dunes to the beach, where oystercatchers flit across the peat-colored waves. In neighboring Portukela, the cliff-top paths are lined with purple orchids, columbines, and squill carpets of starry-blue flowers, and the harbor's clear, sheltered waters are perfect for a refreshing swim at high tide . As I warmed up at the Coastline Coffee Shop, I told a fellow swimmer that I was worried about missing the twice-daily bus to the coast tomorrow, and she laughed and said that maybe someone would give me a ride. I said deaf.
She is an hour after low tide, and there are pipers, picnickers, and children running barefoot on the long sandy beach in the evening.
Early the next morning, catch bus number 274 to Betty Hill. There the Strathnaver Museum underwent extensive renovations and reopened in April 2023. Housed in an ancient church near the white sands of Fir Bay, the museum houses all sorts of curiosities, from Bronze Age cups to dog fur buoys. Although a wealth of information is available about the Mackay clan and the Highland evictions, it is still seen as tragic by some local residents. "I hate sheep," says the woman whose grandfather was forced to move. Later, as I strolled down a quiet lane near Tan, I passed a roadside monument dedicated to local Gaelic poet Ewen Robertson. He wrote powerfully about deforestation, which drove farming communities from the land they cultivated. Some of Robertson's most famous lines include those in which he curses the sheep and the faithless duke who turned Sutherland into a desert.
It's a four-mile walk from Tongue to Kinloch Lodge, where our group strolls through blue milkweed blooms and fragrant myrtle to remote Lake Ann Dislieve. It is being planned by the team behind Ferragaia, a unique non-alcoholic Scottish spirit distilled in Fife from a range of botanicals including West Coast sugar kelp, lemon verbena and blackcurrant leaves from farms in Perthshire. The walk will be led by Wildland Rangers, a long-term conservation project featured in David Attenborough's The Wild Isles. Their responsibilities include forest restoration and wetland restoration.