NC500 clockwise May 2019

Deleted account 220319001 · May 23, 2019

I'm all a bit puzzled by the talk of wet weather from you lot down south, may be I've been lucky the couple of dozen times I've been up round that way and only got rained on once, beginners luck may be

Northern jock · May 24, 2019

Tyzer said:
Not the amount of rain you get in the Highlands!

Some things are more myth than reality. The west coast gets a lot of rain - as does Devon and Cornwall. Quick search for Highlands versus the English hilly bits has:

The climate in Sheffield is warm and temperate. Sheffield is a city with a significant rainfall. Even in the driest month there is a lot of rain. This climate is considered to be Cfb according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The average annual temperature is 9.6 °C in Sheffield. About 747 mm of precipitation falls annually.

Inverness's climate is classified as warm and temperate. The rainfall in Inverness is significant, with precipitation even during the driest month. According to Köppen and Geiger, this climate is classified as Cfb. In Inverness, the average annual temperature is 8.0 °C. Precipitation here averages 740 mm.

The climate here is mild, and generally warm and temperate. Kendal is a city with a significant rainfall. Even in the driest month there is a lot of rain. This climate is considered to be Cfb according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The average annual temperature is 8.6 °C in Kendal. The average annual rainfall is 1137 mm.

The climate in Ullapool is warm and temperate. The rainfall in Ullapool is significant, with precipitation even during the driest month. This climate is considered to be Cfb according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The average annual temperature in Ullapool is 8.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1147 mm.

Source: https://en.climate-data.org/europe/united-kingdom-213/

Dennis the Menace · May 24, 2019

Northern jock said:
Some things are more myth than reality. The west coast gets a lot of rain - as does Devon and Cornwall. Quick search for Highlands versus the English hilly bits has:

The climate in Sheffield is warm and temperate. Sheffield is a city with a significant rainfall. Even in the driest month there is a lot of rain. This climate is considered to be Cfb according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The average annual temperature is 9.6 °C in Sheffield. About 747 mm of precipitation falls annually.

Inverness's climate is classified as warm and temperate. The rainfall in Inverness is significant, with precipitation even during the driest month. According to Köppen and Geiger, this climate is classified as Cfb. In Inverness, the average annual temperature is 8.0 °C. Precipitation here averages 740 mm.

The climate here is mild, and generally warm and temperate. Kendal is a city with a significant rainfall. Even in the driest month there is a lot of rain. This climate is considered to be Cfb according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The average annual temperature is 8.6 °C in Kendal. The average annual rainfall is 1137 mm.

The climate in Ullapool is warm and temperate. The rainfall in Ullapool is significant, with precipitation even during the driest month. This climate is considered to be Cfb according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. The average annual temperature in Ullapool is 8.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1147 mm.

Source: https://en.climate-data.org/europe/united-kingdom-213/

Whats the furking midge count

ShakeyBMW · May 25, 2019

If you thought it was busy around John o’ groats it was probably all the wildlife folk up there for Orca week ( last day yesterday and the Orca finally turned up late evening).
Agree that the top right hand corner is dull riding. There’s a much better road head south from Tongue via Altnaharra to Lairg but then, of course, you haven't “done” the NC500.

Davey B · May 25, 2019

ShakeyBMW said:
There’s a much better road head south from Tongue via Altnaharra to Lairg but then, of course, you haven't “done” the NC500.

Ssshhhh FFS

Tyzer · May 25, 2019

Cabby said:
I'm all a bit puzzled by the talk of wet weather from you lot down south, may be I've been lucky the couple of dozen times I've been up round that way and only got rained on once, beginners luck may be

I can only speak from experience but we have done versions of the NC500 4 times in the last 3 years and 3 out of the 4 it has lashed it down and blown a gail.It still has some of the best scenery I have seen anywhere,wouldnt say best roads as some of them are single track and not in the best condition ,imho of course.

trancey · May 25, 2019

ShakeyBMW said:
There’s a much better road head south from Tongue via Altnaharra to Lairg but then, of course, you haven't “done” the NC500.

Definitely agree, the north east side not very interesting. On another trip, we headed down to Lairg from the Kyle of Tongue and had a great ride, even though the weather was very poor. There's a lighthouse we visited on the north coast but I can't remember the location. There was a burger van next to it and a blackboard listing rare birds and sea life which had recently been observed, does anyone know the light house name?

Billy Buell · May 26, 2019

Could be here ? Dunnet head. Looking over to Hoy. That was two weeks ago.

arealhuman · May 26, 2019

Thanks for sharing this, been wanting to do it for a while - also from Devon!

Cook1e · May 26, 2019

I went for a pootle around the top of Scotland a few years ago, out of season (late September) and I was surprised how often the first (and in one case second) hotel I tried was booked up. I normally rely on the fact that I only need a single room and I'm not fussy lets me get away without advance booking.

In the bar one night, I was chatting to another biker and he asked if "I was doing the NC500?". Confused, I thought he meant the NC200 road races in NI, but wrong date, wrong place, wrong number. Once he explained, I had a look online and found "Scotland's answer to Route 66", which explained why the place was unseasonably busy.

Now it seems to have become a victim of its own success:
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/...h-coast-500-route-speeding-congestion-protest

Billy Buell · May 26, 2019

Cook1e said:
I went for a pootle around the top of Scotland a few years ago, out of season (late September) and I was surprised how often the first (and in one case second) hotel I tried was booked up. I normally rely on the fact that I only need a single room and I'm not fussy lets me get away without advance booking.

In the bar one night, I was chatting to another biker and he asked if "I was doing the NC500?". Confused, I thought he meant the NC200 road races in NI, but wrong date, wrong place, wrong number. Once he explained, I had a look online and found "Scotland's answer to Route 66", which explained why the place was unseasonably busy.

Now it seems to have become a victim of its own success:
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/...h-coast-500-route-speeding-congestion-protest

Go early. We usually go second week in may to avoid the midges and crowds and as often as not we get good weather.

Udders · May 28, 2019

Cabby said:
I'm all a bit puzzled by the talk of wet weather from you lot down south, may be I've been lucky the couple of dozen times I've been up round that way and only got rained on once, beginners luck may be

Same here. I had a week in October last year and 10 days this March up in the north west coast ( and Orkney) and has beautiful weather both times. Never saw a drop of rain during the day but had a couple of rainy nights.

bod · May 29, 2019

This time last week I was in Staffin on Skye, bathed in sunshine - I stood and looked across at Torridon getting soaked.
Never saw any rain on Harris/Lewis, but the breeze was cold.

Got back to Ullapool and it had been grotty there all week I was told.

The morale of the story is, if you're just riding around all day, you're gonna pass through it all at some point.

I have been up there late April/May for the last 25 years, and keeping the beer cold has always been a bigger problem than staying dry.

JulesDive · Jun 4, 2019

Yes, around the far North / West coast, we were probably only seeing a few vehicles per hour.
As we got to the NE corner, there were a lot more vehicles (and much wider roads).
I think it would be a lot busier in school holidays though...

JulesDive · Jun 4, 2019

I think convoys / bunches of motorhomes would be problematic on the slower / twistier / more-up-and-down sections of single track.
But those problems are probably limited to school holidays from the discussions we had with other travellers.
Obviously bikes don't reverse too well up hill and hired campervans / motorhomes don't seem very able to reverse either ... especially not when another one is close behind them.

In general the roads were quite bumpy, so I would not want to do the NC500 on a sports bike or in a sports car.
GS is really a good tool for the roads.

JulesDive · Jun 4, 2019

more photos from north coast and NE corner of NC500

Mobile banking / cashpoint - we saw several of these on the route.

German GS riders were very confused by the concept of curry pizza ... in a pub in Golspie.

Just amazing views everywhere - when its not raining horizontally :blast

JulesDive · Jun 4, 2019

now with photos

with some photos this time :bounce1

JulesDive · Jun 4, 2019

photos from final Day... Golspie to Dundee 1

It was windy for our final day heading down to Dundee. But nice sunny weather and blue skies.
Some great views on the trip. And lots of choices of hotels in Dundee with relatively secure car parks.

PhaedrusMC · Jun 14, 2019

So the NE is less of a destination? Scenery or roads not worth the OCD need to "do" the whole NC500? Better to drop down from Tongue to Inverness-ish via Altnaharra & Lairg?

Davey B · Jun 14, 2019

PhaedrusMC said:
So the NE is less of a destination? Scenery or roads not worth the OCD need to "do" the whole NC500? Better to drop down from Tongue to Inverness-ish via Altnaharra & Lairg?

Very much a box ticking exercise but it is relative. It isn't as spectacular as NW Scotland but way nicer than many parts of the rest of the UK. Hopefully the roads inland will remain pretty much traffic free, some of those with campers and convoys or cars would be a pain in the arse...so....ssshhh, mum's the word.

NC500 clockwise May 2019

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