One positive, if such thing makes any sense, from Covid-19 is that many people have discovered just how amazing parts of the UK are! Is there really any need to fly to far flung parts for our holidays every year? Well, I guess climbers always knew this as we spend every weekend, holiday day, etc. we can enjoying the activities right on our doorsteps. However, couple this with record breaking sunny and dry weather (Climate change? Is that the big threat to our lives already “in the room”?) in Scotland and you may have a recipe for one of the greatest staycations ever!
Of course, there always has to be one downside, everyone else is in the same predicament and so the Highlands were busy! Especially the NC500 route. I’d never heard of the NC500 before, I must have been going around with my eyes shut I guess. The entire route was a continuous procession of cars zooming to the next beauty spot, B&B, or hotel. But the biggest traffic jams were caused by the even more numerous and enormous motorhomes. Our little van would fit in the “garage” of some of these RVs! Indeed many of them were towing an attached “small car”.
Sitting in the van reading a book, having a cup of coffee, and enjoying the late afternoon sunshine in a lay-by at Glenfinnan after a walk and watching the Harry Potter steam train, I was greeted by a gentleman smiling from ear to ear. He’d just climbed out of a posh Jaguar after parking next to us. He said, “That looks like you are living the life!” I was. He went on, “We’d love one of those, can you cook and sleep in it?” I showed him around. He was impressed, “We’re just finishing the NC500. Next time, I think we’ll hire one of those mobile homes.” I answered, “What is the NC500?”
Just then another convoy of four large mobile homes drove past, each with the logo of some “adventure” hire company or another advertised large on their sides.
An aside: Another adventure I’ve often thought would be great in this part of Scotland is cycle touring. The thing is, the Highlands don’t actually have that many roads so it is impossible to create routes that entirely avoid these very busy main roads, the NC500. Many of the best roads are also single track, albeit with frequent well marked passing places. Either way, cycling would be dangerous or unpleasant, or both. Maybe the best way to cycle tour in Scotland is out of the main holiday season or maybe do smaller loops out to the various peninsulas?
Anyway, back on to our staycation…
There were basically two parts to the holiday – 1) West Coast cragging, and 2) the Great Glen Canoe Trail.
Glenfinnan Aqueduct, aka the Hogwarts Express
We knew the first day of our trip was going to be a little damp (the drive north on Saturday had been wet!) so we’d planned to use the day to recover from work and the drive, and check out this popular tourist hot-spot trying to see if Dumbledore was travelling today…
Ardnamurchan
The next day we travelled across the Corran Ferry to the Ardnamurchan…
Pete surveys the climbs… 
Rock climbing on one of the small crags in the “ring” of the ancient Ardnamurchan volcano peninsula – the gabbro rock was incredibly rough!
That evening was cool and still – the midges came out to play…
This is how many midges the camera on our phone managed to photograph, imagine how much worse than this it was. I could hardly breath! Luckily this was the only major “midge attack” of the whole two week trip. 😉 
The midges were sometimes bad in the evenings … we even resorted to lighting midge smoke coils in the van! One of Zac’s used food cans made a good stand. 😉
Torridon & Diabaig
Our next stop heading north was Diabaig and its four-star classic rock climb, The Pillar…
Torridon was a fantastic spot to stop … Laetitia went for a swim in Loch Torridon too! The tide had been out during the hottest part of the day, so when it came in fully just as we parked for the night, the shallow water got heated by the hot sandy loch bed – she exclaimed, “This is lovely, it’s so warm … for Scotland!”
Reiff
Perhaps one of the most idyllic locations we got to was Reiff. Certainly the small but utterly beautiful sea cliff climbing overlooking the Summer Isles and with distant views of Skye were unbeatable…
Ullapool
Our next port of call was Ullapool. But en-route we called in at the amazing little road-side beach-side crag, Beach Crag.
The approach to Beach Crag alone was a brilliant adventure!
Beach Crag – see what I mean about a fantastic location! 
Our approach to Beach Crag involved a little wading to get around this headland. A couple of hours later the tide was out – way out – it was over half a kilometres walk for Laetitia to go swimming! 
Pete on his made-up line on Beach Crag – the best bits of the: first half of a HVS and top half of an E2, maybe E1 – 2 stars for quality, position, and location
Arriving in Ullapool we upped the accommodation a bit, having booking a self-catering shack for a few days. We’d booked it because you never know what Scottish weather will deliver, and we thought a chance to dry out might be needed half way through our travels. It wasn’t. But it was good to have a break from the van. 🙂
We did have one day – in two weeks! – that was less than sunny. But it didn’t rain, and so we made a lovely touristic trip to see a few things close to Ullapool…
Pete goes exploring the through-trip in the Bone Caves 
Ardvreck Castle on the shores of Loch Assynt 
Rock sculpture at Knockan Crag 
Laetitia in the entrance to one of the impressive Bone Caves
Both Knockan Crag (where an impressive effort has been put in to create a really informative geological self-guided tour that explains how Scotland’s rocks got where they are) and the Bone Caves were well worth the time to see.
Gairloch
On our way now back south we stopped in at Gairloch, another beautiful place we’ve been to before. (I’m using that word, beautiful, too much I know. But it is!)
Series - Scottish West Coast 2021
- Scottish West Coast Staycation
- Great Glen Canoe Trail
I ‘did’ the NC500 about 5 years ago and really enjoyed it. Thankfully, there wasn’t the volume of traffic that you experienced. It was originally promoted by the Scottish Tourist Board as a means of encouraging more tourism from the EU – the success of that, coupled with people not flying as a result of Covid-19, has obviously resulted in many more tourists using it. Scotland is a great place to holiday – when there aren’t any midges, rain, fog etc! The scenery is fantastic & the people (generally) friendly! You obviously had a great time!