Scotland NC500 – day 5 – fog, castle, mountains and forests Nov 8 2025

This article is part of the series “2025-10: Northern Scotland”.

October 17

My wife Annika and I have left Lairg where we stayed overnight and head west on the A837 through hilly farmland. Some places are covered with patches of dense fog which give even the more common views a magical touch.

We cross the River Oykel. North of the A837 another bridge spans the small river. These stone arch bridges are quite common, but here we can park so that we can take photos. We even get a bit of sun.

Half an hour later we arrive at the Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve. We park the car and have a view of the lake Lochan An Ais and the mountains behind. At least on those parts, that are not covered by fog.

Anyway, we hike the Crag Top Trail, a circular route. It starts drizzling as we follow the path and learn about the geological history of Scotland. Have a look at the seven photos of the stones.

While we continue our hike clouds approach and most of the view vanishes into a white void. But not for long, then lake and mountains are visible again.

Our next accommodation is in Badrallach in the south. However, we have time and first take the road north to Loch Assynt where Ardvreck Castle is located. We already visited this place three years ago.

As we hoped, the weather forecast was correct and it cleared up more and more. The silhouette of the castle ruins looks as impressive as last time, but now the water level is much lower and you can reach the peninsula with dry feet without wearing high rubber boots.

Not far from the castle there is a little waterfall, that is surrounded by birch trees. Now the leaves are bright yellow – one of the reasons why Annika and I love to visit Scotland in autumn.

Back in the car we follow the same roads that we already used three years ago. The same A837 to Lochinver by the sea where we take a light lunch in the very same guesthouse we stayed overnight three years ago. The same ridiculously small and bent single track road, that leads us further south to Badnagyle. Perhaps this is my favourite Scottish road (as long as Annika is driving and not me).

We turn left and reach the highlands again. We pass many mountains, amongst others Stac Pollaidh, that we climbed last time.

And we finally find a parking place where I can take a photo of a gorse bush, that is still in bloom.

Last time we spent a lot of time in Ullapool, now we do not even stop. (Or did we? I don’t remember.) We have to drive around the Loch Broom, a sea loch that cuts deeply into the land. But finally we can leave the main route and take the small road to Badrallach where we will spend the next night. Left and right there are some of the most beautiful trees I have seen for a long time, but again this road is single-track and it is not possible to stop without blocking it completely. Only once we can leave the car to admire the beech forest and to have a curious look at the two fenced in tombstones.

Then Annika and I arrive at our tonight’s accommodation where we get an extraordinarily beautiful room with a Scandinavian wood-burning stove and a large double bed. We take an evening walk to the end of the road and back again. Then we’re winding down the day in our room.

Scotland NC500 – day 2 – standing stones and a castle on a cliff Nov 5 2025

This article is part of the series “2025-10: Northern Scotland”.

14 October

When I wake up in Helmsdale on the Scottish east coast it is still twilight. It is quiet. Only some fisher boats are leaving the harbour and two bird watchers are standing on the pier. I like especially the sign “No net working” which has a completely different meaning here. Context matters!

Back at our guesthouse “Song of the Sea, Selkie House”, Lorna, our host is inviting my wife Annika and me to her big kitchen where she prepares our breakfast. And what a breakfast: Cereals with fresh strawberries, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, toast with home-made jam and more was put on the table while we had a long and cheerful chat with plenty of laughter. I feel so welcome to be here and we only left reluctantly. I think: “If you do not like Lorna’s place you do not know anything about travelling.” If only my English was better and my ability to understand all kinds of Scottish accents.

Song of the Sea, Selkie House – our bedroom

Round half past ten we continue our road trip, heading straight north. Some attractions we find in our guidebook, while others are on using Google Maps. So we have found Achavanich, a megalithic structure literally in the middle of nowhere. We use the tiny parking area und wander around between the lichen-covered stones that are arranged in a horseshoe-shaped pattern. A bit further down – a lake called Loch Stemster.

Exercise for lichenologists: how many different species can you count on the second photo?

The next attraction is in the book: The Castle Sinclair Girnigoe 5 miles north of the town Wick. This castle – or better said its ruins – is located at the very edge of the coastal cliff. There are educational displays that explain the history, but for me the most impressive detail is the exposed location by the sea. More than an hour Annika and I are strolling round the castle despite of the drizzle. A real highlight on our trip!

This is one of the displays showing how the castle looked centuries ago.

Back in the car we drive back to the A)), follow it north and then take the road to the Duncansby Head Lighthouse which marks the most northeasterly point of the Scottish mainland. Photo. Check!

The next stop is only a very short one. I take some photos of the John o’ Groats Signpost, a famous but surprisingly boring signpost. It has four arms pointing to Orkney and Shetland, to Edinburgh, Lands End and New York. That’s it. While I take these photos Annika is slowly driving around because parking is expensive in this commercially focussed place and we are happy to leave it behind.

But the signpost is true: The Orkney islands are pretty near and we see the cliffs from different places, such as our next stop Dunnet Head. This is the northernmost point of the UK. Here take a photo of the partially sunlit cliffs of the Orkney islands in the distance.

So Annika, next time Orkney and Shetland? … and Faroe islands? … Iceland again? … Greenland? … Vinland? Sorry, I got slightly distracted. Back to our road trip.

From Dunnet Head it is just about twenty kilometres to Thurso, a surprisingly big town by the north coast of Scotland. Here we stay in a quite shabby hostel, but we can cook, we can sleep and that’s all you really need. Parking the car in town however was adventurous because the rules are pretty cryptic and time-dependent. Anyhow, there is a big car park by the River Thurso, where Annika parked our rental car over night. (Thanks again, Google Maps for the tip.)

The next day we will leave the NC500. We thought, travelling in October would make it easier to find accommodation, but it gets harder, because many guesthouses have been closed for the season.

Scotland NC500 – prelude Nov 3 2025

This article is part of the series “2025-10: Northern Scotland”.

Oh my, was is really less than two weeks ago, that my wife Annika and I were on holidays in Scotland? It feels like ages ago! Time to start blogging about our trip that is south from were we live, but still kind of way up north, at least from a British perspective.

11 October – arrival

Half past twelve. I have just landed in Aberdeen, Scotland’s 3rd largest town. Annika will arrive late afternoon, my luggage the next day … . I check in at the Station Hotel and realise that I have reached a rainy realm. At the entrance door you can rent umbrellas. 3 £ for 48 hours. Card payment.

I take a stroll through town and start to take photos.

Soon I realise that in Aberdeen it completely makes sense to take photos in upright format.

Later the day I head eastwards to the Aberdeen beach front. I would have taken my bathing gear if my luggage had arrived in time.

When Annika arrives it has become dark. We eat dinner at the Indian restaurant Namaste Delhi where we have great Indian food. I ordered a salty lassi and got a custom one—off the menu! I however didn’t dare to play the grand piano. A rare view nowadays.

12 October – Aberdeen

After having breakfast in our hotel –cereals, toast, bacon and eggs, beans, haggis, you name it – we take the bus to the Old Town. But before that I try to take a photo of the Marischal College in the center. No, it is not curved like on the photo but even with my 14 mm wide angle lens I had to stitch together six photos to get this colossal building on a single image.

Marischal College (image stitched together from six wide angle photos)

But now: Old town. First the botanical garden, where the Autumn Crocus flowers were in full bloom. Very beautiful and very toxic!

Next stop: St Machar’s cathedral with its Heraldic Roof. Just impressive!

Equally impressive are the huge and ancient trees. We don’t have such trees at home, neither in Umeå, Sweden, nor in Tromsø, Norway. These beech roots I photographed in Seaton Park that lies beside St Machar’s by the river Don.

Old beech roots (yes, the tree is still living)

Next stop: King’s College, founded in 1495 and still part of the university. The wood carvings in the chapel are amazing and the whole place breathes centuries of history.

After a small lunch we take the bus back to the center of Aberdeen, where old and modern architecture live side by side.

We are back at the hotel, but not my luggage. Just minutes after we have entered our room I get a call from the reception. The luggage finally has arrived. Wideroe had failed completely in giving any updates on any communication channel about the luggage’s whereabouts. Now I’m really relieved. We can take the train to Inverness the next day as planned! Now it is time for a nap.

After the nap we want to have a snack for dinner, preferably something that is new to us. We find it in a tiny Georgian restaurant called Oki Doki, where we eat Khinkali for the first time in our lives. Strongly recommended to try it out when you are in Aberdeen!

Georgian Khinkali at Oki Doki in Aberdeen

13 October – Car rental

It is ten o’clock and Leakey’s Bookshop – Scotland’s 2nd largest second-hand bookshop – has just opened. It is a beauty! At least in the eyes of book lovers. It is also overwhelming with its over 100,000 books (including an own section for polar exploration!) and we didn’t buy anything.

We are not in Aberdeen anymore. As planned we took the the train to Inverness in the morning, where Leakey’s Bookshop is located. Here in Inverness we will hire a car and drive the “North Coast 500” (short NC500), a scenic 516-mile (or 830 km) long road trip along the north coast of Scotland. We have eight days.

NC500 (as shown in the Arnold Clark car rental)

We have to walk a bit to Arnold Clark, our car rental. Here we receive our SEAT Ibiza – a perfect car for the many narrow single track roads. It is Annika, who is driving. She has already left-hand driving experiences from three years ago and an additional driver (me) would have costed us £ 120.

And off we go – heading north.

Stay tuned for the next chapter …

Walking home between the seasons Oct 27 2025

After a three-week break, I did my usual after-work hike from Prestvannet to my flat today. Back then it was full autumn, now the weather bas become more wintry despite of the warmer temperatures the last days.

For those who wonder whether I’ll show photos from Scotland. Yes I’ll do but not before next weekend. See you then …

Just a pick-up at the station… – part II Jul 26 2025

< to part 1

Tuesday, 22 July

When I wake up early, the mountains and the sea have vanished. Thick fog surrounds our overnight stay Marmelkroken on the island Andøya. I take a walk through the wet grass to the bird observation place but beside of some seagulls and a lonely curlew that flies around there is nothing to see.

One hour later Annika and I sit inside enjoying our gorgeous breakfast. We get a table-side presentation of the dishes. More or less everything has been produced locally and we eat it all.

Then we head of. We want to catch the one o’clock ferry in Andenes that will bring us to the next island Senja, second largest in Norway (again, when we ignore Svalbard). The weather soon gets fair again, but around the mountains still some clouds are hanging.

Yesterday we took the western road, today we cross the boggy island to take the eastern one. On the way there we pass the village Å. There are several Norwegian places called Å, the most famous one is on the Lofoten. The next stop is the octagonal church in Dverberg.

A bit north near Myrset there is a huge area of peat mining. Andøya has large areas of peat bogs and parts of it has been drained to extract the peat. I climb on a hill of peat – it bounces like a water bed – to take some photos of this moonscape. Then I protect my camera lens, because each step emits a cloud of brown dust. But that’s nothing compared to the huge double-wheeled tractors anyhow that produce huge clouds of peat dust while driving. My car is brown now.

We take it easy, we have time – that’s what I thought. When we however arrive at the ferry terminal it becomes quite obvious that we would not join the next ferry. Too many cars are ahead of us waiting. So the one o’clock the ferry departs without us, leaving us behind but in a much better start position. Now we have to wait for four hours. Time to explore Andenes a bit.

As hoped and expected we find place on the next ferry. Now we are on the way north to Senja. Soon we are in open water, accompanied only by some sea birds.

The ferry trip takes one hour and forty minutes. Then we arrive in Gryllefjord on Senja.

Unfortunately we won’t catch the last ferry to Kvaløya today, they are not coordinated. We have to drive via the mainland – a large detour. Although it is another detour we decide to take the coastal route. 289 more kilometres to go which means a five hour drive in Norway. It is evening and we will make less breaks now.

Stop one – Tungeneset, a scenic rest area.

Stop two – another one of the many beautiful views on a fjord and the mountains on the other side. Here we see something special: a cloud waterfall. Clouds fall down a steep mountain range where they vanish in thin air. New clouds come from behind. The cloud waterfall is several kilometres broad and looks like a huge waterfall in slow motion. An impressive view.

(Note to the meteorologists: is this a orographic cloud spillover?)

We take the bridge from Silsand to Finnsnes. After two days we are on the Norwegian mainland again. Although it is still midnight sun season – the sun won’t set, it just moves lower and lower until it is hidden behind the mountain. I took the next photo at eleven o’clock in the evening.

At half past twelve we arrive home in Tromsø, my “work home”. Although it was only one evening and two days of travelling together it felt like real holidays.

We think about doing the same in half a year. I have to check the ferries, but it would be interesting to visit the same places in wintertime.

Midnight sun on the Stor-Kjølen – part II Jul 9 2025

To part I >

I slept better than expected in the shelter on top of the mountain Stor–Kjølen (790 masl) that I hiked up the previous day. At 7 o’clock I get up and enjoy strolling around the plateau under a deep blue sky. Thank you, DNT, for maintaining this shelter.

Inside Varmebua – the shelter on Stor-Kjølen

At half past seven I start my way back. The sun is high in the sky.

The plateau summit resembles a desert of stones with hardly any plant beside of lichens and some tufts of grass. The first plant that catches my eye when descending the summit is a flowering ground cover. If the AI is correct, it is silene acaulis, also known as moss campion or cushion pink.

Again I cross the huge snow field. I see footprints but no ski tracks. Skiing season seams finally to be over.

Navigation is easy. Sometimes I go astray, since there are so many parallel paths – this hike is quite popular. But with the help of the painted red dots it is easy to find back to the main track. The cairns – Scottish Gaelic for a man-made pile of stones – can be used for navigation as well. Great in fog! However, use them with caution. Tourists love to build these all over the mountains on random places.

While coming down the mountain the landscape slowly changes. The ground is more and more overgrown and to the right there are several lakes.

As the day before I pass a small valley. Now it lies in the sun. It looks very idyllic with its lakes, streams and its birch trees. One day I have to check how to go there.

Another stream to cross, another lake to view …

… and I’m on the home stretch. Soon I can see the gravel car park. One of the grey cars is mine. But still the terrain is hilly and in no time the car park disappears from view again.

By 9:45 I am back at the car. I was incredibly slow — a luxury you can afford when you’re hiking alone and stopping to take photos.

Later that day I stand on my balcony. The view is mostly blocked by large trees. Birches, willows, rowans. Through the gaps I can spot the mountains. And if you look carefully on the next photo, you may spot a tiny white dot on the top of a snowy mountain. That’s the radar station of Stor-Kjølen. I’ve been there last night.

Midnight sun on the Stor-Kjølen Jul 7 2025

Yes, I was tired Saturday evening after travelling back from Obbola to Tromsø. But the weather was so nice and I already had started thinking about going up the mountain Stor-Kjølen for experiencing the midnight sun up there. Finally I made a decision. Let’s go. I packed water, a camping mat, a sleeping back, but most of all my camera equipment and went off. It is only a twenty minute drive to the lake Finnvikvatnet on the island Kvaløya where I parked my car. From there it is round 5½ km to the top and a good 500 metres of elevation gain.

When I start my tour at around 10 o’clock the sun is low. The sun is low, but it won’t set tonight – and not for the next twenty days either. The landscape glows in warm colours. The ground is dry, but soon I cross the first tiny snowfield.

The path winds its way through grassy terrain scattered with stones and rocks. Stray snowfields lie on both sides of the path and the radar station on top of Stor-Kjølen has come into view.

The first lake flanks the trail. Slowly, the terrain is becoming rockier.

I look back and already now the hiking tour was a success. Lakes, hills – some grassy, some rocky – and at the horizon a mountain range. So beautiful in the warm light of the low sun.

For a while, grassy patches and rocky ground alternate …

… then the altitude takes command. Only snow and rocks are present and the vegetation is reduced mostly to mosses and lichens. I have to cross a large snow field but the ground is not slippery.

But then I arrive on the stone-covered plateau of Stor-Kjølen, where I can see a small cairn in front of me, a tall cairn marking the summit and the radar station. And if you look closely you can see a small cabin in front of the station. It’s a shelter for hikers. I’m alone, so I can use it for the night.

I want to take photos of the midnight sun, so I start experimenting with some sun-facing shots. These photos are much darker than reality. While the light is warm, it is still bright daylight.

The mountains and the sea all glow in hazy orange hues when I look against the sun.

But I have a mission – taking a photo of the midnight sun. Here it is. Unfortunately there is a small, transparent cloud in front of the sun that makes it look like a white splotch instead of a circle. Bad luck!

Bad luck? Not really. We have summer time, so the lowest position of the sun is one hour later – or a bit more accurate 0:48 due to local solar time. So I had some spare time to take more photo from the stone-covered flat top.

Some island, then the open Norwegian Sea

Then it was time: The sun as its lowest position. Ok – I was three minutes late, but the solar path is so flat that it doesn’t matter when taking photos. The light is the same. And eventually the little cloud was vanished.

Just a selfie with my mobile phone, then it is time for bed, at last. (A down hoodie? Yes – it is windy and only +5 °C.)

I enter the shelter, roll out my sleeping mat on the floor and lie down, using my sleeping bag as a blanket. Cluck-cluck, cackle-cackle! What’s that? I peek out of the door and see that the hour of the ptarmigans has started. All around, these galliforms dart about, filling the air with their typical clucking. I am too tired to start another photo hunt so I just take some snapshots. (These photos are heavily cropped.)

But then it is finally time to sleep. The shelter is filled with light, the camping mats (I found another one in the shelter) are thin and the ground is hard. But then I doze off and …

Sleeping (No, not true – taking a selfie of me pretending sleeping)

… sleep. At least for a couple of hours.

To part II >

Dundret Jun 29 2025

It rained a lot in Gällivare when Annika and I were there some days ago. On Wednesday however the weather forecast said there’d be a bit of sun in the afternoon, so we planned to hike on the Dundret. Dundret is just around the corner and a solitary mountain, a so-called inselberg. I skied up there in Winter 2012. In summer you can take your car and drive up almost all the way.

Indeed it had stopped raining and we had some sun and blue sky when we started our hike.

As in many Scandinavian hiking areas there are summer and winter trails. The winter trails are marked with red crosses that lead over the “kalfjäll”.

Kalfjäll is the Swedish word for the alpine tundra above the tree line. The dwarf birch growing here is technically a tree, but you wouldn’t think so at first glance. It has no visible trunk, and its branches sprawl low across the ground.

We splotted some flowers in bloom such as the mountain-Heath, the alpine azalea or the lapland lousewort.

Lapland lousewort (Pedicularis lapponica)

It got cloudy on our hike, but at least it didn’t rain.

After some hours of hiking (and some mosquito contacts) we arrived at the car and drove down again. On some of the slopes there was still a bit of snow.

For me Dundret is a mountain for hiking and back-country skiing, but it is also a ski resort.

Near the station at the bottom we were sitting for a while enjoying our waffle with jam and cream before we drove back to the Gällivare camping ground. When we arrived there it started to rain heavily. Good timing I would say.

And here two winter photos from Dundret when I was there in February 2012. Seems like ages ago.

A short summer journey in Northern Sweden Jun 28 2025

Annika and I are on holiday and spent this week to travel around northern Sweden by car, mainly to visit friends. Some stopps: Kusfors, Arvidsjaur, Nattavaara, and Gällivare.

Jar museum Rolig & Rusk

We took a short stop at the jar museum in Burträsk. Not to visit the museum, but the small flea market. If you travel in Sweden and love browsing at flea markets, look for the sign “Loppis”.

Smörgåstårta

In Kusfors we visited friends and got Smörgåstårta for lunch. This dish is very Swedish. While its “architecture” resembles a layered cream cake, the taste is savoury and contains ingredients like ham or cheese.

Summer flowers

When there are meadows or pastures in Northern Sweden there are full of flowers in summer. Here you can see for examples dandelions, butter cups, campions, and cow parsley. This patch is by our friend’s house.

A reindeer in the grocery?

Reindeers are typical for Northern Sweden and you have to watch out for them when driving a car. This fellow however is stuffed and stands in the display window of a grocery in Arvidsjaur.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz…

There are many lakes in Sweden and in summer these lakes always come with mosquitoes, especially in the evening. Luckily they are late this year and I could take this photo without being eaten alive.

Old log cabin

We are spending the night at Renvallen Camping near Arvidsjaur. The camping ground is an old farm and some buildings such as this log cabin are pretty old.

Gravel roads

If you think, your car is too clean, use a Swedish gravel road in rain. The back of you car will be plastered with brownish-grey mud that even the strongest rain cannot wash away.

Sandviken beach

Yes, I wanted to take a bath at Sandviken in Gällivare, but my motivation went near zero, when I stood there in the steady rain looking at the shallow water with its gravelly ground.

Fat Tony’s

If you like burgers, you should give Fat Tony’s in Gällivare a try. Both atmosphere and food are great. And if you are there, do visit the bathroom.

Dundret

Just around the corner from Gällivare lies Dundret, a solitary mountain. When the rain stopped Annika and I took a hike there together with our friend Sascha and his malamute Roxy.

Tyre dealer

Stuff standing around in car garages has always its own aesthetics. The reason, why we needed a tyre dealer on our trip will be told another time (although you already may guess it).

Summer Café in Nattavaara

On Monday we passed Nattavaara. Alas, the summer café is closed on Mondays. On our way back it was open and we stopped to ate cake. Different volunteers come up for short stays to run the café and bake cakes. Most of them are from Switzerland or Germany which strongly increases the cake variety in the region.

Fremdriftstak May 23 2025

Monday 19 May

On Monday I joined a kayak training on fremdriftstak. That’s Norwegian for forward stroke, the most basic kayak stroke. We had two experienced trainers, one for the euro paddle, one for the Greenland paddle. I joined the euro paddle group and learned some new details that hopefully will help me kayaking a bit more effortlessly in the future. The weather was a mixture of sun and clouds and the last hour it rained. Doesn’t matter, we are fully waterproofed when on the sea anyhow.

Thursday 22 May

Yesterday was the regular Thursday paddling with eighteen eager kayakers and fantastic spring weather. I joined the group kayaking to the island Grindøya as the week before. While the tour leaders told us about their plans and checked, that we all know the basic communication signs, the colourful kayaks had already been brought to the shore.

My own kayak is in Sweden so I always rent a kayak from the kayak club. A good opportunity to finally test another model. I had used the same on Monday, now I checked it a bit again while waiting for the others to join.

The boat houses of the kayak club Tromsø havpadleklubb

We paddled to “Monsterbygget” – a large cuboid building that is one of the favourite orientation marks for kayakers. There we split and our group of eleven headed west to the island Grindøya.

It is round 2.5 kilometres to the southern tip of the island. A good opportunity to recap my learning from the Monday training. It went well but it will take time until it is in the muscle memory. At the small bay with the sandy beach we parked our kayaks. This is one of the two locations where you may enter the island during the bird breeding season. Time for a break, enjoying the sun, drinking water and eating chocolate.

Kayaks at the beach of Store Grindøya II

On our way back we paddled along the western shore of the island. We saw a lot of eider ducks and other sea birds that I cannot name. After two kilometres we had passed the northern tip and were heading back to Tromsøya crossing the strait Sandnessundet.

This is a great season for paddling, especially on such a sunny day. The coast is green, the sea is blue (and very cold) and the mountains are still covered with snow.

In the south we could spot a ship. Where will it go? We decided to wait. The ship was sailing along the strait and since ships are not only much bigger than us but also much faster we decided to paddle back a bit and then to a sea mark north to wait for the ship to pass.

First the ship’s movements were hardly visible but when it approached it seemed to become faster and faster. While it was passing we spotted another ship in the distance, this time in the south and decided to cross the strait instantly. I took two photos, then I had to keep up and since we wanted to cross the strait quickly I didn’t make any further photos.

At half past nine we were back at the boat houses. Takk for turen – thanks for the tour!

Today

I’m proud. I paddled 11.3 km yesterday and I don’t have any pain in my right arm as occasionally after other tours. Just for that the training on fremdriftstak this Monday was a full success. Thanks, B. for your tipps and advice.

These are the two recorded tracks from kayaking to Grindøya. The first one from last week, the second one from yesterday.