NC500 - Travel to Tain (Day 1)

Before we started on the NC 500, we enjoyed two days at The Mill Forge in Gretna with a small number of our nearest and dearest to celebrate our wedding and the start of the next chapter of our lives together. The decision to have any family and friends at our wedding was one that was much deliberated as neither of us are particularly extroverted and, to us, a wedding party of 16 is 14 too many! However, it was great to have those closest to us join us on our special day and send us off on our honeymoon in the Highlands (fortunately with no tin cans attached to the back of the car!).

A quick look at the weather forecast did not fill either of us with much hope, there was snow forecasted for most of our journey around the north coast – especially on the west coast! I hate driving in snow at the best of times, but when you don’t know the roads and are heading towards hilly terrain it is even worse. After much deliberation, we decided not to panic too much. All of our accommodation had been booked with the view that we would be able to get a refund if we needed to cancel last minute as booking the accommodation about 6 months in advance amidst a looming pandemic and rapidly changing restrictions, which had affected many plans over the last year, meant we thought it better to be safe than sorry. As neither of us are campers and like having a solid place to lay our head, we also opted against the traditional camping option and decided to book Airbnb’s for the duration of our stay, the only exception to this is when we stay in Applecross we will be in a hostel.

The first day of our adventure was possibly our longest drive, we headed out the door as soon as we had said goodbye and sorted out the much-needed essentials, ensuring that both we and the car had enough fuel. Our first stop was Tain, which is about 30 miles north of Inverness. I decided that this would be a good place to stop as we would be coming back through Inverness and there seemed no point in stopping somewhere twice. The estimated travel time was four and a half hours. Of course, we knew we must start as we meant to go on and we planned to make some stops on our way to ensure that we stretched our legs and got in those all-important toilet breaks. Tik-Tok is a great place to find may wonders around the UK, and this showed me a few of the places I wanted to stop off and see along our route of the NC 500. All the other ideas had been looked up online, finding out if there was anything close to where we were driving. The first place we went to see was the Bracklinn Falls in Callander. This place was noted for having spectacular views and an award-winning bridge. Definitely worth stopping for, right? According to the sign, the bridge has been made from locally sources Douglas fir trees, individually prepared, transported to the site and then constructed over six months. Sounds pretty amazing! Unfortunately, the bridge had been removed, with the view to replace after some areas had shown signs of deterioration. What a typical way to start our road trip! If I had been as proactive on googling each of the stops as I had been looking if they were on our route, I would have known this, but that said it was a lovely little walk and the views of the fall were still beautiful. The only issue was trying to capture that beauty from non-direct angles. If you drive to the Bracklinn Falls car park, the walk to the actual falls is not too long, approximately 15 minutes each way with a steep hill when you get to the actual location. It is well pathed and as long as you have the appropriate shoes you will not have much of an issue. If the bridge is open, you can extend the walk to the Scout’s Pool (Coire Eas na Caillich), this again would provide some stunning views. But as we would have to walk back to the car park, then trek further out to come back on ourselves, and with such a long journey ahead, it was not worth our time. I would definitely like to go back to the falls to see what it is like with the bridge there, and possibly even factor in going to see the Scout’s Pool!

Another place that I found on Tik-Tok that I was really looking forward to seeing was The Hermitage, located just off the A9 in Dunkeld. When originally planning the route, I factored in the driving time to each of the locations but failed to factor in the time it would take us to visit each of the places. With the time getting on, and approximately 3 hours 15 minutes left of the journey, we decided that we would have to visit The Hermitage next time we happen to holiday nearby. As part of the National Trust for Scotland, there is a £3 charge for the car park, but I imagine the views and experience would be worth that. I will let you know when we have chance to visit!

The drive to Tain was a long one, but the scenery was something out of this world. Driving up the A9, you see everything from sheep at pasture to rolling mountains, lochs and rivers. Beats driving up the M6. We arrived just before tea time and, as we set off just after 10am and had a long day the previous day, we were both tired out. But this was the start of the adventure.

We stayed in a little Granny Flat in Tain, hosted by James and Vadna. It has all the amenities you need for a short stay, somewhere to cook some food, and somewhere to lay your head (there was more facilities if needed, but as it was only day 1 of our road trip, we did not need to take advantage of these). The little extras provided by the host would have been greatly appreciated if we had stayed for longer; but either way, thank you. They are located close to the centre of Tain, and with a short walk you would be able to get on to the sea front of the Dornoch Firth. Given more time we would have made the effort to visit Tain a little more, but our priority was to get an early night and up raring to go the next morning.