5/26/2019 Speeding, congestion and protest: the dark side of Scotland’s North Coast 500 route | Travel | The

route | Travel | The Guardian

Speeding, congestion and protest: the dark side of

Scotland’s North Coast 500 route
For locals, the phenomenal success of this driving route means blocked roads, a racetrack mentality
and mess, rather than the promised benefits to business

Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent

Sat 25 May 2019 07.00 BST

A
t Bettyhill General Merchants, a convenience store and post office in a remote
village on Scotland’s far north coast, perched above the spectacular dunes of
Torrisdale Bay, owner Susan Malone is anticipating the summer tourist season with
ambivalence.

“There’s a sense among locals that the situation is going to get worse this summer. We’ve
already had a much busier April and May than expected: I don’t think anybody realised how
popular this [driving route] would become.”

The shop is on the A836, on the most northerly section of the North Coast 500, the touring
route launched in 2015 to promote less-visited parts of the northern Highlands. It has proved
phenomenally popular, attracting hordes of campers, classic car drivers and endurance cyclists
every year, and with them some unintended consequences.

The inspired rebranding of a road system that had existed for decades as Scotland’s version of
Route 66 is a 516-mile loop that starts at Inverness, heads west to Applecross, facing the Isle of
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Skye in Wester Ross, then turns roughly north up the coast through Durness and John O’Groats
and back to Inverness. It incorporates many narrow, twisting roads, including the steepest
single track stretch in the UK, at Bealach na Bà.

The NC500 passport, which visitors can have stamped at participating attractions along the
way, recommends stops at “windswept beaches and fairytale castles”, as well as distilleries,
smokeries and farm shops. According to research for Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the
route boosted business by 15%-20% year on year and led to a 26% rise in visitor numbers and a
10% increase in traffic in the first two years.

But this success is tempered by the associated strain on basic infrastructure – road
maintenance, toilets and waste disposal– and some locals argue that the route has created a
hit-and-run tourist habit that does not benefit small businesses.

Roofing tacks were found to be strewn across the road near Bettyhill on several occasions last
year, according to Police Scotland. Malone and her husband both suffered punctures. Although
the perpetrator was never found, locals assume that the vandalism was the result of ongoing
frustration at tourist traffic.

Malone says: “The tourists don’t know how to use the roads. They don’t understand how to
use passing places, and if someone doesn’t let you overtake, you’re stuck driving at 20-30
miles an hour on a road you know well. It’s difficult for emergency services, doctors and
nurses on home visits, and people just trying to get to work on time. Or the tourists will stop
suddenly because they’ve seen a Highland cow and want to take a picture.”

The North Coast 500 website has tips on what to do should you
encounter animals on the route, though locals have said tourists
are stopping to take pictures. Photograph: Getty Images

Some 200 miles away, where the NC500 follows the west coast by Loch Torridan, local
photographer Steve Carter posted a picture on social media this week of what becomes a
familiar sight over the summer: five campervans crammed into a lochside lay-by near
Shieldaig.

“The herding instinct among motor caravans is strong,” Carter joked, but his frustration is
palpable. “There’s an extraordinary number of campervans on the roads. They’re mostly
rented in Inverness, so people have no idea how to drive them, and particularly no idea how to
reverse, and are understandably nervous doing so. Then you have four or five of them driving
in convoy, and if they meet something coming the other way the whole road comes to a halt.
It’s the one road out of the village, so local access is effectively blocked.”

Villagers and local politicians along the route point out that these are not isolated incidents but
a relentless grind that is affecting quality of life for those who live here year-round.

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With the camper convoys come high-powered cars and motorbikes. There has been an increase
in road accidents across the north of Scotland since the route was launched, and last year four
motorists were charged with allegedly racing at speeds of up to 128mph along its roads. Police
Scotland says it has since increased patrols and enforcement activity.

Although the NC500 was the brainchild of the non-profit North Highland Initiative, North
Coast 500 Ltd became a private company in April 2015. Tom Campbell, its managing director,
acknowledges the impact of the increased traffic along the route but says: “Through our online
presence, we encourage anyone planning to visit the North Coast 500 to plan ahead and ensure
they understand how to drive and ride responsibly, safely and respectfully. It should also be
recognised that residents are as likely to be responsible as visitors for negligent waste
disposal.”

Campbell emphasises that the route has contributed to unprecedented growth in an area of
Scotland that has suffered significant hardship through depopulation and economic decline.
“Our annual surveys would suggest that we are achieving this to date,” he says. “We have seen
new businesses open in villages, local amenities are open for longer hours, and younger people
can see new opportunities to stay in the area.”

Mike Williamson, a councillor in Perth and Kinross, says the NC500 has fundamentally
changed the way in which tourists explore the north of Scotland. He is looking to learn lessons
as his more southerly area, between Edinburgh and the Cairngorms, launches its own route,
the Heart 200, this summer.

Loch Katrine, Lake Lomond and the Trossachs national park, which
will feature on the new Heart 200 route launching this summer.
Photograph: David C Tomlinson/Getty Images

“The NC500 has basically changed the tourist market up there, because people are no longer
staying for a week but moving on every night,” Williamson says.

Single-night stays can be crippling for B&B owners, who have to do much more changing of
beds, and many along the route now insist on a two-night minimum. Many tourists will arrive
at a destination late in the evening and leave first thing next morning to get to the next route
point, so they do not have time to spend money in local businesses.

“We’ve also got a duty of care to our environment,” says Williamson. “We can see from the
NC500 that we need a supportive infrastructure. People want to wake up next to a lochside but
they also need somewhere to dispose of their waste and refill their water tanks.”

It’s a scenario that Sutherland councillor Kirsteen Currie knows well. “We have overflowing
bins already and it’s only May,” she says. “The grass around parking places is burned by the

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chemicals from campervan cleaning systems. I’m sick of seeing human faeces at the side of the
road.”

Communication is key, says Currie. Like the majority of locals, she is also keen to emphasise
the lifeline that tourism provides to rural areas but wants more consultation. “Both the local
authority and the NC500 organisation need to allay the fears of local people.”

She wants Highland Council to explore the possibilities of a visitor levy, as well as support for
community initiatives to build more designated stopover sites for larger vehicles, with suitable
pitches, recycling and water facilities.

Last October, the Scottish government announced the first round of a new Rural Tourism
Infrastructure Fund, with £3m dedicated to upgrading toilets, pathways and campervan
facilities in key sites around the Highlands, and in February Highland Council announced an
additional £1.5m for road maintenance.

“We don’t want anyone to be put off,” says Currie, “and we’re desperate to welcome people but
the vast majority of visitors are whizzing past and ticking it off the list, rather than spending
time and money in the local community.”

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Topics
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Road safety
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