Discovering the Far North and Highlands from Inverness
North and west of Inverness, the Highlands open into a different kind of scenery altogether — sea cliffs, ancient sea caves, ruined coastal strongholds, and lochs, glens and mountains that look more like sculpture than landscape. This is Caithness, Sutherland and Wester Ross: a panorama of everything Scotland is famous for, all within a few days driving of the city.
Much of this ground is covered by the North Coast 500, and there's no shortage of operators offering to drive you round it. What follows here isn't the full circuit, but my own selection of the sites along this route that I like to stop at — and a private, historian-guided tour over five days covering these places, built at a deliberately slower pace than most.
Places I like to visit around Caithness, Sutherland and Wester Ross
- Dornoch: A picturesque cathedral town on the Dornoch Firth, with a medieval sandstone cathedral and a quiet, historic town centre.
- Dunrobin Castle: The largest and grandest castle in the Highlands, with formal gardens overlooking the Dornoch Firth.
- Carn Liath Broch: A well-preserved, two-thousand-year-old Iron Age broch, its drystone walls still standing to a remarkable height.
- Whaligoe Steps: 365 hand-cut stone steps descending a dramatic cliff face to a hidden harbour below.
- Castle Sinclair Girnigoe: The dramatic clifftop ruin of the Earls of Caithness, perched on a narrow headland above the North Sea near Wick.
- John o' Groats: The traditional "end of the road" from Land's End, with views out across the Pentland Firth to Orkney.
- Dunnet Head: The true northernmost point of mainland Britain, with a lighthouse and sweeping coastal views.
- Tongue: A small Highland village, in the heart of Clan Mackay territory, framed by the mountains of Ben Loyal and Ben Hope.
- Smoo Cave: One of the largest sea caves in Britain, cut into the limestone at Durness, with a waterfall dropping into its inner chamber.
- Ardvreck Castle: The evocative ruin of a Clan Macleod stronghold on the shores of Loch Assynt, framed by some of the oldest mountains in Europe.
- Knockan Crag: A National Nature Reserve where the visible rock strata transformed our understanding of how mountains form, with a short trail and views over the Coigach and Assynt hills.
- Corrieshalloch Gorge: A mile-long box canyon crossed by a Victorian suspension bridge, with the Falls of Measach dropping 45 metres below.
- Gruinard Bay: A sweep of pink sand and turquoise water, with views out toward the Summer Isles.
- Inverewe Garden: A sub-tropical garden at 58 degrees north, made possible by the Gulf Stream, on a peninsula in Loch Ewe.
- Loch Maree: One of Scotland's most beautiful lochs, dotted with ancient pine-covered islands beneath the slopes of Slioch.
- Torridon: Among the oldest mountains on Earth, rising almost sheer from sea level in dramatic isolation.
- Shieldaig: A pocket-sized fishing village on Loch Torridon, with a pine-covered island just offshore.
How to explore the Far North and Highlands
All of these locations can be explored independently by car — with only light walking required to reach most sites — if you have the time to plan the logistics and don't mind long single-track sections of road. A number of tour operators also offer small-group tours covering the North Coast 500.
However, if you prefer a private tour, many of these iconic locations are already core highlights in my dedicated 5 Day Far North and Highlands multi-day private tour from Inverness:
This private tour covers a large part of the North Coast 500 without attempting every mile of it. I leave out the Stoer and Applecross peninsulas deliberately, both of which add significant time on the busiest single-track sections of the route. That keeps daily driving distances short and leaves more time out of the vehicle at each stop, rather than a full circuit squeezed into five days — with no earlier than a 9am start, and typically at our accommodation by 4 or 5pm for a proper, relaxed evening.