In September of 2022, I got the opportunity to travel to Scotland for an extended period of time to visit my parter, Phoebe. This journey over to Scotland would we different though, as we decided we wanted to venture out of the city of Edinburgh where she lives and travel within the Scottish highlands. In the highlands, there is a 500 mile long stretch of roadway known as the North Coast 500 (NC500), similar to Highway 1 in the United States.

The NC500 was long, but we were excited. We would be starting from Edinburgh, and driving up through Inverness, then along most of the NC500 across the span of four days, wild camping wherever we see fit. Wild camping, for my American friends, is a term deemed by the Scotts meaning to camp where you please. In Scotland, they have a free to roam policy, meaning you can essentially camp wherever you’d like, within reason. We’d be taking advantage of the Scotts showing their land off, and camping wherever we found an area we liked! With that in mind, we rented a car, and off we went.

Day 1 – Ullapool

On our first day, Phoebe and I had plans to make it to Ullapool by nightfall.With us starting from Edinburgh Friday night, we had a good three hours to make it to Inverness prior to our start of the NC500 itself. We got to our rental car, spent a good 45minutes trying to open the damn internet lock (dumb) and then finally got on the road. As soon as you leave the city limits of Edinburgh, you go over one of the three bridges to the North. My partner referrs to this as “The Gateway to the Highlands,” and me being a Michigander, it reminds me of the Bay bridge on travels up North. On the way, we ended up hitting about two hours of standstill traffic, but Amy MacDonald, Phil Collins, and good vibes helped us power through.

Upon Arriving in Ullapool, we started to walk around the cute little fishing vollage. By reccomendation, Phoebe and I went to the SeafoodShack and got two orders of their fish soup, and my god was is FLAVORFUL. Highly recommend anyone visitng the area check this place out

We decided to walk along the shore and skip some rocks, because what good midwesterner wouldn’t? Who did it better?

After dancing through Ullapool, we decided it was time to go find camp for the night. Phoebe and I drove out of town along Scotlands winding roads, and stumbled along a site off the side of the road roughly 30 minutes outside of town. We had a lovely neighbor Steve, and to sleep we went.

Day 2: Durness

After a nice long night of camping through a roaring thunderstorm, we had our eyes and signs set on Durness. Durness is another coastal village that has a larger tourist attraction, known as Smoo Cave, that we were very eager to see. Along the route, we stumbled aross a sign that said “Waterfall,” and knew we had to go take a small hike to go find it. Wow, was this such a stunning surprise.

So Phoebe and I are celebrating our one year anniversary in October, and this trip was a celebration point for the two of us. In lieu of that, she surprised me out of the blue by setting us up to do one of my favorite ativities…GOLF. I love golf. Phoebe found a course right along the coast where we could play a quick 9. This would be her first ever round, and my first ever time playing outside the States. Shot a respectable 45 and I was on top of the world.

After holeing out nine holes in a row, phoebe and I had our sights set on Durness’ biggest attraction, Smoo cave! Smoo Cave is a large, combined seawater and freshwater cave in Durness, formed from the dolomites eroding over time from a tide inlet. The cave is really unique and I’ve never seen one like it. Apparently entrances to the cave are still being discovered, as university students found a new entrance within the last year.

Smoo Cave and the surrounding area are absolutely incredible. The views extend all the way to the sea, and if you’re lucky enough like us, you may even catch a rainbow. I can’t recommend visiting Smoo Cave enough if you happen to find yourself over in Durness.

After taking in the jaw dropping views of of Durness, Pheebs and I packed up and got ready to find a camping area, for the next day we were to both bag our first Munro. Whats a munro you may ask? Yeah, I had no idea at first either. A munro is a Scottish mountain with an elevation over 3,000ft. In total there are 282 Munros across Scotland and we were to summit Ben Hope the following morning, so off to find a camp site we went.

Here’s where things got stressful, for me at least. Being American, we drive on the right side of the road. Driving on the left, sure I could do that relatively easily, just needed to say “left lane, left lane,” outloud every time I made a turn, but driving down a single lane, traffic moving both ways, where the size of the road is barely wider than a car? That’s where things get interesting. For about 45 minutes of our search trying to find a campsite, we were in that stressful situation. If you saw a car coming in the opposite direction, one car would have to reverse carefully, not fall off the road, and get to a passing point. Stressful.

After we found our camp site, I found out about Scotlands favorite national animal, midges. Midges are like mosquitos, but gnat sized. Theyre big pests and really are a sore in your rear end…literally. As we stumbled across this lovely site with a beach, we met our friends, and they somehow found a way to sleep with us in our tent.

…Thanks midges.

Day 3: Ben Hope and Durness

It’s Sunday and we are up with a MISSION. Ben Hope, you will be conquered by two Americans today. Now I’ve been lucky to have some mountains under my belt, Grand Teton, Kilimanjaro, but never had the change to bag one in Europe. Ben Hope would be a ~3500ft elevation climb up a winding path, so a decent, non technical climb with beautiful views. Off we went!

For the bottom half of the climb, its mostly open grassland as you climb up a grassy and rocky path. For us, it was raining, so we got to play in the mud (fall on our butts as some would say) as we climbed up the mountain. As we climbed, the sky and the overview opened up. As we rounded some Carins, we saw a sight that put a large, goofy smile on face…Two Budweisers on a rock, waiting for travelers to snag them. The summit was close and the Universe was giving us sights of America. Hot Damn.

As we got view of the concrete summit marker, Scotland knocked USA off its highhorse and sent a raincloud directly to the Ben Hope summit as Jon and Phoebe arrived, so we got wet. Overall, 10/10 experience, would do again. Ben Hope = Bagged.

After climbing the mountain, we headed our way up to our final stop of the day, John O’ Groates, the northern most city in mainland Scotland. We were absolutely gassed, so we decided to get a bed and breakfast and continue John O’ Groates in the morning. (Shoutout to Kacey from Burnside Cottage, was the best stay we could’ve asked for. Stay at the B&B if you are ever in the area. Probably my favorite place I’ve ever stayed at)

Day 4: John O’ Groates

John O’ Groates is a city known for its scenery, and luckily for us, we had clear blue skies as we awoke in our cozy B&B. Luckily for us, we had crystal clear blue skies overlooking the Atlantic Coast. There are three main attraction that we wanted to hit in John O’Groates: The Sign, The Lighthouse, and the Duncansby Head Stacks. All three are so beautiful, and I cant recommend checking them all out enough.

All in all, this trip was a dream. The up north of Scotland is absolutely stunning, and I highly recommend everyone take a chance to pay it a visit given the opportunity. You really dont get to see rolling open hills like these in the States, and it was such a treat to be able to do so here. Thank you Phoebe for making it so special

A Note For Phoebe

Thank you for being my partner, my special someone whom I can turn to when things go awry. This year of distance definitely has not been easy on the two of us, but I know if we can get through this, we can get through everything together. Your ambition, creativity, and emotional awareness are so inspiring not only to me, but to everyone that you’ve ever met. This marked the biggest adventure that we’ve done together to date, and to see that we were able to laugh, smile, and get through every speed bump along the way speaks wonders to the bond we’ve made. I love you, and I can’t wait for what’s next. I’m curious on when you’ll see this note, but can’t wait until you do.

Live large and why not?

-Jon