Applecross Inn looked really busy when we parked at the front for a wander. Had to laugh when we went to fill up with fuel there, at the only fuel pump for miles.
It was a debit/credit card machine only and there was no wifi signal to it 
Luckily I had a 5 litre can which was full in the boot, so used that. Just make sure that you keep your tank well topped up 
When you visit the Kylesku say hello to Mark, he is a real petrol head . He told us some great stories about car mag and road tests in the area. He works Front of House there
Are you hiring a Caterham ? I see there is a Caterham hire advertisement on the North Coast 500 website.
Luckily we never had any problem with the Highland midges 
I had a look at Glencoe House website
Seems great for a future getaway jolly 
Looks as good a standard as the Torridon.
Cheers Dave 
Midges just bounce off gardeners The smidge map says no midges at Lochinver .
Love those views!
Remember that warm/dry week in Scotland in early June ?? I did a 3 days Edinburgh and back trip in my Exige 260 roof down all 3 days!! I knew it was going to be a selfish trip so went alone.
Clockwise and anti-clockwise. Edinburgh - Braemar/Timintoul (through the Cairngorms missing the rubbish roads direct to Inverness) to Inverness - Gairloch - Lochinver - KyLesku - Durness - Bettyhill (North Coast) - Thurso - and back via Ullapool/Inverness/Edinburgh along the west coast missing out Lochinver.
Woke up Wednesday with the rest of the week on leave, remembered my promise to visit this area again but NEVER in the rain AGAIN. It all relied on getting accommodation for Thursday evening in the north coast, it can be a real problem in this area. Once secured at Farr Cottage (B&B run by a chef with attitude which would be excellent for a small group of Exigers - see below) I packed up and went. The plan was to start looking for accommodation from Gairloch onwards, which I found in Ullapool. Ullapool to Bettyhil was a slow/fast fantastic day. I strongly recommend taking the single pass road south of Lochinver (next to Loch Lurgainn, turn off near Drumrunnie) for a slooowww relaxed empty vista, do the A837 east of Lochinver after dinner in the late summer light not-so-slow by memory. Recommend a stop at the Durness Balnakeil Craft Village (link below - Chocolate factory for lunch) am old disused military camp and much better than the usual hotel formula.
Lunch at Kylesku, beach walk at Durness. Arrived at Bettyhil about 6:30pm, decided to tick the John-O-Grats box and blasted east. But after the fantastic roads of the day got really bored and turned back at Thurso. Back in time to be invited to join the other guests for leftover dinner. A good day.
Friday back home anticlockwise, stocking up on strong coffee at the craft village. Great to get a different perspective going anticlockwise. Inverness direct to Edinburgh is f***%%^g annoying with ave speed cameras etc.
Overall a good 3 days, overtook a few slow porsche/ferarris/GTRs/cyclists. Got surprised by Highland Cows on the road.
Personally I think the extra time and effort in avoiding the east coast by doing a clockwise/antoclockwise there and back was worth it. Any one else have an opinion??
Waiting for more dry days in Scotland !!!
Very cool. Have been more or less alternating Scotland and Wales with a bunch of mates the last few years and we’re headed back again next month and taking in the NC500. Some incredible roads there.
From our 2013 trip. We tested the width of the local roads pretty comprehensively. The Murci had several inches of tyre on both sides extending into thin air in places.
We came back to the same petrol station in 2014 and yer man had a picture of our fleet from the year before.
The CGT was truly bonkers btw.
That sounds awesome. Love the Murci and of course the CGT,…I bet they both sounded amazing,…esp that screaming V10
I was in the passenger seat of the CGT for about 50 miles or so. The most incredible machine I’ve ever been in. An example that sticks in my mind is when we were trundling through some little town and pedestrians were doing their thing and arbitrarily walking out in front of us. I noted how effortlessly tractable the engine was at 15-20mph and how impressive it was given that we appeared to be in fourth gear. It turned out we were in sixth. Precision engineering like I’m sure I’ll never experience again.
I’m sure I don’t need to describe how the S1 I’d piloted for most of the trip would have handled the same street.
Of course we had lots of open road driving, I will only say it’s a brisk enough machine.
There was a certain amount of this also.
Another from the previous year:
Wow sounds amazing. Yup the CGT is a very special thing. Love the pics
We have our annual trip through Snowdonia which I love but I have to say I’d love to do a Highlands tour.
Does indeed, fancy stretching the S1’s legs one year Ben?
You know what John I really would. When your S1 is done we should talk
Well just got back from my first holiday in Scotland , all i can say is wow! it’s just stunning , can’t believe i have never been before when its relatively on my doorstep , we stayed at loch Tay for a few nights then up to Lochinver for a week , Loch Tay was nice but it got more beautiful the more north west we went , the parts of the 500 we went on were tight single lane with passing places but worth it for the views and amazing beaches , would love to drive the Exige up there one day.
some pics:
Great photos 
Can anyone join in?
I was discussing the possibility of an exiges.com North 500 outing with Ted and Jabbs at Oulton on Monday. Having ridden part of it on my Land’s End trip, I can confirm it’s a stunning part of the world, just suited to our cars.
Great pics, by the way.
Stunning pictures, a group of us did the route years ago on motorbikes, and it would indeed be great in the Exige.
What your pictures do not show is the lashing rain, high winds, rain, freezing cold, rain, midges, rain, granite chippings, rain, and villages locked in the '60s when trying to find a hotel. (Oh and more rain)
So we started going to Europe and the Alps instead
Thank you Mr Pesky
Haha , I think we must have been very lucky with the weather then , we had one overcast drizzly day and a rainy morning in 10 days , we even got sunburn on the beach , no midges in the day at lochinver and a few in the evening but nothing like we was told it would be like .
Really great photos moomin They put mine to shame on page 1
We must have been lucky too, as it only rained a couple of times and that was during the night.
Never had any trouble with the midges either.
Planned and booked our Hotels in January, two of them were excellent and the other two were fine.
Just back too. Great photos and ours are no match