Discovering the Far North and Wester Ross from Inverness

Places I like to visit around Caithness, Sutherland and Wester Ross

• Dornoch: A picturesque cathedral town on the Dornoch Firth, with a medieval sandstone cathedral and a quiet, historic town centre.
• Dunrobin Castle: The largest and grandest castle in the Highlands, with formal gardens overlooking the Dornoch Firth.
• Carn Liath Broch: A well-preserved, two-thousand-year-old Iron Age broch, its drystone walls still standing to a remarkable height.
• Whaligoe Steps: 365 hand-cut stone steps descending a dramatic cliff face to a hidden harbour below.
• Castle Sinclair Girnigoe: The dramatic clifftop ruin of the Earls of Caithness, perched on a narrow headland above the North Sea near Wick.
• John o' Groats: The traditional "end of the road" from Land's End, with views out across the Pentland Firth to Orkney.
• Dunnet Head: The true northernmost point of mainland Britain, with a lighthouse and sweeping coastal views.
• Tongue: A small Highland village, in the heart of Clan Mackay territory, framed by the mountains of Ben Loyal and Ben Hope.
• Smoo Cave: One of the largest sea caves in Britain, cut into the limestone at Durness, with a waterfall dropping into its inner chamber.
• Ardvreck Castle: The evocative ruin of a Clan Macleod stronghold on the shores of Loch Assynt, framed by some of the oldest mountains in Europe.
• Knockan Crag: A National Nature Reserve where the visible rock strata transformed our understanding of how mountains form, with a short trail and views over the Coigach and Assynt hills.
• Corrieshalloch Gorge: A mile-long box canyon crossed by a Victorian suspension bridge, with the Falls of Measach dropping 45 metres below.
• Gruinard Bay: A sweep of pink sand and turquoise water, with views out toward the Summer Isles.
• Inverewe Garden: A sub-tropical garden at 58 degrees north, made possible by the Gulf Stream, on a peninsula in Loch Ewe.
• Loch Maree: One of Scotland's most beautiful lochs, dotted with ancient pine-covered islands beneath the slopes of Slioch.
• Torridon: Among the oldest mountains on Earth, rising almost sheer from sea level in dramatic isolation.
• Shieldaig: A pocket-sized fishing village on Loch Torridon, with a pine-covered island just offshore.

How to explore the Far North and Wester Ross

All of these locations can be explored independently by car — with only light walking required to reach most sites — if you have the time to plan the logistics and don't mind long single-track sections of road. A number of tour operators also offer small-group tours covering the North Coast 500.

I offer a curated 5 Day Far North and Wester Ross Private Tour from Inverness — a fully private, historian-guided route that covers most of the sites listed above and a large part of the North Coast 500 without attempting every mile of it. I leave out the Stoer and Applecross peninsulas deliberately, both of which add significant time on the busiest single-track sections of the route. That keeps daily driving distances short and leaves more time out of the vehicle at each stop, rather than a full circuit squeezed into five days — with no earlier than a 9am start, and typically at our accommodation by 4 or 5pm for a proper, relaxed evening.

P.S. — I'm often asked why this tour doesn't include Applecross and the Bealach na Ba. It's become one of the most crowded single-track roads in Scotland, and while the drive down the pass is spectacular, I've always preferred the view looking up at the Applecross hills from across Kishorn Bay. It's a quieter way to take in the same mountains.