When Susanne Ramacher-Schmitz moved to the “very quiet and very remote” township of Laid in the Scottish Highlands in the spring of 2020, she reveled in the silence and stunning landscapes.
Then came summer. An “invasion” of vehicles, sometimes hundreds per hour, sped past her house daily, the noise reverberating for miles. “You hear the motorbikes and racing cars all the way around. It just becomes worse and worse,” she said.
Unknowingly, Ms. Ramacher-Schmitz had settled along the 516-mile scenic driving route known as the North Coast 500, which has become one of the most popular destinations in Scotland.
When it began in 2015, “Scotland’s Ultimate Road Trip” as it was marketed, aimed to support businesses in the North Highlands by sending tourists where previously few had traveled. A project of the nonprofit North Highland Initiative, led by King Charles III, the NC500 rebranded existing roadways as a Scottish version of Route 66, starting and ending in the Highland capital of Inverness, and taking in small towns, historic sites and spectacular scenery across six regions.
But critics say this once-idyllic wilderness has been overwhelmed by an influx of tourists without infrastructure to support them.
Without adequate public restrooms or waste-dumping facilities, wild campers and motor home passengers leave human waste and garbage on turnouts at the side of the road or on private property, which residents are forced to clean up.
“I’m all for balanced development and appropriate kinds of industry,” said Susan Black, who lives in the town of Kinlochbervie and says she can no longer walk her dog in the nearby meadows because she might step in human excrement. “We are not equipped to deal with vast amounts of traffic. ”
Locals describe poorly driven camper vans causing accidents and significant delays on narrow winding roads that connect the area’s remote villages and create a lifeline for residents. Constant footfall disturbs delicate ecosystems and habitats, like at Drumholistan, near the village of Melvich, which is home to a large colony of endangered Atlantic puffins that travelers block traffic and trample peatlands to see.
“Not all tourists behave badly, but if you have 1,000 a day and 10 percent do, it makes a difference,” said Ms. Ramacher-Schmitz.
A Win for Tourism
From a tourism perspective, the NC500 was an overnight success. In its first year, tourist information centers across the North Highlands reported a 26 percent average increase in visits, while various attractions reported an aggregate growth in visitor numbers of nearly 30 percent during the route’s first three years. A study by Glasgow Caledonian University published in 2020 reported that in 2018, the NC500 contributed 22.8 million pounds, or more than $31.1 million at current valuations, to the region’s economy.
That year, the majority share of the NC500 brand was bought from the North Highland Initiative by a private company called Wildland Ventures Limited, owned by Scotland’s largest landowner, the Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen. Mr. Povlsen owns the clothing company Bestseller, as well as significant stakes in the fashion retailer ASOS and the payment company Klarna. Wildland Ventures is a conservation and ecotourism company that includes luxury accommodations like Lundies House, a boutique hotel in the far north of Scotland, and is also responsible for rewilding projects across the Highlands.
Since the pandemic especially, international visitors have flocked to Scotland, with Americans making up the largest group, accounting for more than 20 percent of the country’s total overseas visits. A sustainable tourism report from the Highland Council found that more than 8.4 million visitors headed to the Highlands in 2023 alone.
“I’m not sure my business would have survived without the NC500,” said the owner of a holiday rental cottage who lives in Wick, a stop on the eastern leg of the NC500, and who asked not to be named because she feared repercussions for her business. “As a resident, however, it’s been a disaster.”
Speeding Through the Highlands
It was in 2020 that, Robin Pettigrew, a resident of the village of Lochcarron, which sits directly on the route, remembers things getting out of hand. He describes “large numbers of car rallies, almost on a daily basis, at extremely high speed, whizzing past” his front door. Around the same time, Facebook groups sprang up, including NC500 the Dirty Truth, for which Mr. Pettigrew became an administrator, where members share their frustrations and photos of visitors disregarding rules on things like parking, camping and disposing of trash.
“Responsible and sustainable tourism is good for the Highland economy,” Mr. Pettigrew said. “But I think some of the big businesses overpromote the NC500 and don’t take ownership of the collateral damage it’s doing.” He said he had seen motor home drivers emptying toilet waste into rainwater drains and even had motorcyclists defecate on his lawn. “I witnessed some idiots chopping down old hawthorn trees for their campfires,” he added.
Safety has also become an issue, critics say. The country roads that make up the route aren’t intended for large vehicles or heavy traffic, including the Bealach na Bà, a more-than-2,000-foot climb along a series of one-lane hairpin turns, considered one of Britain’s most dangerous roads.
Drivers from the United States are a particular concern: After U.S. travelers caused several “fatal or serious accidents” in the Highlands last year, Police Scotland, the country’s national police force, met with the local Scottish parliament member to share that it would work with the American consulate and rental car companies to ensure that U.S. travelers in particular receive road safety warnings.
The latest figures from Transport Scotland, a national government agency, show that from 2022 to 2023, collisions caused by drivers’ “inexperience of driving on the left” had increased to 35 a year, from 24.
Slowing Things Down
The situation landed the NC500 on Fodor’s “No List” for 2025, one of “15 destinations to reconsider” for “untenable popularity.” But the tourists keep coming.
In response, the North Highland Initiative recently began a series of “Press Pause” projects to rebalance tourism by letting residents choose how their areas are promoted. A team of 18 rangers, employed by the Highland Council, a local authority, began patrolling the route in June to educate visitors on “responsible access” to the area.
The North Highland Initiative did not respond to requests for comment.
NC500 Ltd., which serves as the route’s marketing organization as well as its largest shareholder, has acknowledged the need for more mindful travel to the area. In October, the group put out an online visitor pledge asking travelers to commit to respecting the environment and local communities while promising to support local businesses.
In June, the organization added a counter to its website to track the number of signatures, which recently stood at about 4,000.
David Richardson, NC500 Ltd.’s development and engagement manager, who was brought on last summer to help address community concerns, said in an interview that he had been in contact with everyone from the police to the owners of camper van parks to the members of the Scottish Parliament with an interest in the North Highlands to discuss the issues.
“We all know what the problems are,” he said. “So let’s work together to alleviate, as best we can, those problems, to educate people, to make it work better, grasp the opportunities.”
Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
The post Should You Drive Scotland’s ‘Ultimate Road Trip?’ Locals Say Maybe Not. appeared first on New York Times.
