The NC500 in winter: what is open, what is shut and how to plan it

Can you do the NC500 in winter?

Yes. The roads stay open, most hotels on the route trade all year, and between November and March you will have the Bealach na Bà, Sango Sands and Duncansby Head almost to yourself. What changes is the light: about nine hours of it on 1 November, six and a half at the solstice, ten and a half by 1 March. The castles and the ferries to Cape Wrath and Handa shut for the season, the coast roads are gritted by day but not overnight, and the Bealach closes in snow. Plan seven days with short drives and an early finish, and you will have a good trip. Plan five long days in December and you will drive most of it in the dark.

If you can choose, go in November, late February or March rather than the depths of December and January. You get the same empty roads with two or three more hours of daylight, and by March the museums and the odd campsite are opening up again. Our best time of year guide compares every month if you are weighing winter against May or September.

How much daylight you get

Sunrise and sunset shift fast this far north. Inverness has six hours 41 minutes of daylight on 21 December and Thurso six hours 23 minutes. The times below are approximate, but the shape is right: in late December you are driving from about nine until half past three, and you want to be parked before it goes dark.

Driving the single-track sections in the dark is not dangerous so much as pointless. You came for the view.

What the weather is really like

The coast is milder than people expect and the inland glens are where the cold lives. The Met Office averages for 1991 to 2020 put Wick's December at 6.8°C by day and 1.7°C at night with 70 mm of rain, while Kinlochewe, inland on the Torridon road, has the same temperatures and 277 mm. The west is about four times wetter than Caithness in winter, and no colder on the coast. Snow lies for fewer than six days a year on the westernmost coasts and for more than fifty on the high ground, and the UK's record low of minus 27.2°C was set at Altnaharra, inland Sutherland, in December 1995. The north and west of Scotland are the windiest part of the UK, and December to February is when it blows hardest. December is also the dullest month. Pack for wet and wind rather than deep cold, and expect the odd day when the sensible thing is a long lunch.

Which roads are gritted, and when

This is the fact that matters most. Only the A9, the A835 from Inverness to Ullapool and the A99 from Latheron to Wick are trunk roads, run by Transport Scotland with a 24-hour winter service and precautionary salting from October to May. Everything else on the NC500, which is to say the A836 and A838 along the north coast, the A837 and A894 through Assynt, the A832 and A896 through Wester Ross and the Applecross road, belongs to Highland Council. The council treats its primary routes from 6am to 9pm, secondary routes roughly 6am to 6pm, and states plainly that there is no overnight service. Early starts on a frosty morning in Assynt are for the gritter, not for you.

Snow gates near the route are on the A9 at Helmsdale and Berriedale Braes and on the A835 at Braemore and the Aultguish Inn. When they close, ploughs clear the road behind them and the police reopen it when it is safe. Traffic Scotland shows gate status and live gritter positions; check it every morning.

Is the Bealach na Bà open in winter?

Sometimes. The Bealach is a council road that climbs to 2,054 feet, and Highland Council closes it in snow and ice: overnight on 20 November 2024, and for five days from 2 January 2025, with the gates at each end shut. The official NC500 site says it "can be impassible in the winter months". The alternative is the A896 to Shieldaig and the coast road round to Applecross, which is longer, lower and beautiful in its own right. It is also the route anything larger than a VW-sized van should take in every season. Read the Bealach na Bà guide before you decide, and treat a clear forecast in December as a reason to try it in the middle of the day, not first thing.

What is open on the NC500 in winter

Everything below was checked against the operator in August 2026. "Winter" means November to March unless stated.

So the ticketed castles are out, and that is the main loss. The stacks, the beaches, the gorge, the cave and the passes are all still there, and Duncansby Stacks in a January gale is a different place from Duncansby in July.

Which distilleries open in winter

Weekdays only, in other words. Plan a distillery for a day when someone else is driving; the drink-drive limit in Scotland is 50mg per 100ml. The NC500 distilleries guide has the tours and prices.

Where to stay in winter

The hotels are your friends here. Most self-catering on the route also stays open and tends to drop its rates, though few owners publish winter prices; ask.

Book hotels and self-catering, treat campsites as Scourie plus a hard-standing at Sango Sands, and do not count on a hostel. The NC500 accommodation guide lists the rest, and the places to stay on the NC500 page has our listed pods, cabins and cottages, several of which are open year round with hot tubs, which is a better winter idea than it sounds.

Fuel in winter

Two pumps you can rely on around the clock: Applecross's community filling station, unmanned and card only, and Lochinver, which is manned Monday to Saturday and open 24 hours on the card machine. Elsewhere on the north and west coasts expect roughly 8am to 6pm and Sunday closures at the village stations in Durness, Tongue, Bettyhill, Scourie and Gairloch; those hours come from local listings rather than the operators, so check before you rely on one. Thurso and Wick have supermarket and Shell forecourts with long hours. Fill up in Inverness, Ullapool, Thurso and Wick and never pass a pump on the north coast with less than half a tank. The route map guide gives the distances between them.

Can you see the northern lights on the NC500?

Yes, and winter is the season. VisitScotland puts the best window at October to March, most often between 9pm and 2am, and names Dunnet Head and Duncansby Head as the Caithness spots, with Wester Ross and Applecross as quieter alternatives. You need a clear, cold sky with no moon and a decent solar storm. AuroraWatch UK at Lancaster University sends free alerts: yellow means it may be visible to the eye from Scotland, amber means likely, red means anywhere in the UK. Sango Sands, Dunnet Head and Achmelvich all face the right way and have no streetlights; Dunnet Head is also one of the council's overnight motorhome car parks, which is handy if you are in a van. Our northern lights on Skye guide explains how to read the forecasts.

Winter wildlife and events

The red deer rut runs through September and October and the stags are still on the low ground through winter, easiest to see early and late in the day. Seals haul out all year, red squirrels are busier in the cold, and the red kites at Tollie near Dingwall are fed at 1.30pm daily. Dolphins at Chanonry Point are a summer thing; do not build a winter day round them. Wildlife on the NC500 has the where and when.

On Hogmanay, be careful what you promise yourself. Inverness's free street party, the Red Hot Highland Fling, ended in 2025 and the council was still discussing a replacement in August 2026. Kylesku Hotel does a Hogmanay dinner, and Inverness has its Christmas market in December; see Christmas markets in Scotland.

Taking a motorhome in winter

It works, with three conditions. Use propane, because butane stops gassing off near freezing; the Camping and Caravanning Club's advice is propane only, drain the external water and waste tanks on sub-zero nights, fit a carbon monoxide alarm and never heat the van with the hob. Bunk Campers hires through winter, fits gas central heating and recommends buying an extra gas bottle, and says plainly that its vans do not have winter tyres. Highland Campervans publishes no winter policy, so ask. Highland Council's £40 seven-day overnight scheme covers Dunnet Head, Durness and ten other car parks, but the council does not say whether it runs through winter, so check before you count on it. The motorhome guide covers the overnight rules.

What to carry and how to stay safe

The Met Office's list is the right one: check the route and closures before you leave, check wipers, tyres and screen wash, and carry warm layers, food, water, a blanket, a torch and a charged phone with an in-car charger. Drive on dipped headlights in snow, pull away in second, keep your distance and use a low gear downhill. Tell someone your plan for the day, because mobile signal disappears through Assynt and along the north coast. Carry breakdown cover that includes recovery, not just roadside, and read the hire company's terms on unmade roads. And give yourself permission to stop early; the point of doing the NC500 in winter is the light on the hills, and it is gone by four.

Is the NC500 cheaper in winter?

Generally, though the evidence is patchy because so few operators publish winter rates. Mackays in Wick advertises winter offers from £45 a person a night, Bunchrew's low-season pitch is £25 against £28 in high season, Sango Sands' winter hard-standing is £20, and Scourie is £14. Campervan hire is the clearest saving: Big Sky Campers charges £95 a night from November to March against £185 in summer. Attraction spend falls to almost nothing because the paid castles are shut. Our NC500 cost guide prices the whole trip.

A winter shape for the loop

Seven days, clockwise, with every driving day short enough to finish in daylight. Inverness to Torridon on the first day by the A835 and A832 through Achnasheen, saving the Bealach for the next morning if the forecast and the council allow it, and otherwise going round by Shieldaig. Torridon to Ullapool by Gairloch and Gruinard. Ullapool to Lochinver or Kylesku through Assynt, the stretch to take slowest in ice. Kylesku to Durness and on to Tongue, with the cave and Sango Sands. Tongue to Thurso along the north coast, with Dunnet Head at dusk for the aurora. Wick, the stacks and Whaligoe, then down to Brora or Dornoch. Dornoch to Inverness by Tain and the Black Isle, with Glen Ord or Glenmorangie if it is a weekday and you are not driving.

Skip Cape Wrath and Handa, because you cannot get there. Skip the Bealach if there is any doubt. Keep the museums for March. And do not try to do it in four days: with six to nine hours of light, four days is a lot of driving in the dark.

Midges

None. The midge season runs roughly late May to September, worst on the west coast in still, damp weather; VisitScotland stretches it to October. From November to March you will not see one, which is one of the best arguments for winter there is.

Plan your trip

• North Coast 500: the complete guide

• Best time of year to drive the NC500

• Bealach na Bà: Scotland's most dramatic mountain pass

• Where to stay on the NC500

• Campsites along the NC500

• Smoo Cave

• Castle of Mey

• Dunrobin Castle