2020 Mad Dog NC500 Tour

Scotland's Route 66

This is our version of the famous NC500 route that follows the coastal roads around the most northerly part of Scotland, it traditionally starts and finishes in Inverness and totals 516 miles.

Below is some background and bright ideas for organising it our way?

As our trusty band of chums come from all over England we decided to start and finish our tour in Gretna Green just inside the Scottish border riding the route in an anticlockwise direction. The duration is 7 days and a total distance of 1169 miles. You might have seen some other riders do the traditional ride in a day (blimey) but not for us!!! 150-200 miles per day is very comfortable distance allowing plenty of stops to look at stuff and scoff coffee and bacon rolls, we also deliberately chose areas of civilisation for nightly stops, the idea of rocking up in the middle of nowhere pitching a tent cooking your own can of beans sleeping under the stars and having a poo in a plastic bag the next morning does not appeal in the slightest. We want a nice warm hotel room, a comfy bed, a fab meal, beer and the opportunity to talk a load of old nonsense about the day's daring doo.

So the 8 of us met in Gretna, immediately went to the nearest pub, dished out the tour tee shirts and so it began. We were on rides from right across the spectrum, a Honda Varadero aka The Pug / a pair of Triumph Street Triples / Suzuki GSXR750 / KTM1290 Adventure / a pair of BMW R1200's aka The Battlestars and by no means least a Ducati Scrambler, Desert Sled. All great rides with their pros & cons and just shows you can tour on anything.

The next day we made our way from Gretna to Stirling passing through Ecclefechan (I don't know why the name of this place makes me laugh every time but it does) In our opinion the Scottish borders are the forgotten part of the country. Motorcyclists often bypass the area heading straight for the highlands completely missing some wonderful roads and scenery that includes Scotland's highest village! YES I would have expected that to be in the north but NO it's Wanlochhead in Dumfries & Galloway!

So a wonderful day's ride, sussing each other's riding along the way, setting a brisk but safe pace and making sure we didn't lose anybody especially in the suburbs of Glasgow.

Each day usually started with a full Scottish breakfast (other breakfasts were available) and ended with a feast fit for a group of motorcycle riding gods and goddess! Especially the curry night in Thurso.

Dog & The Princess

John o' Groats

Rod n Rich

The Battlestars visit John o' Groats

The riding was bloomin fantastic with every type of road you can imagine. Dry/ smooth/ wet of course/ bumpy as hell/ single track/ fast/ slow, and the scenery! If you like a vista “well it's the place for you” We had tons of highlights and here are a few. The Bealach na Ba across the Applecross peninsula, a wet day with low clouds so the views were (well non existent) and the midges (other beasties are available) ate our faces off but a spectacular ride nevertheless. Secondly our diversion onto The Isle of Skye (great weather that day) an unbelievable day's ride, fast and memorable! Then the area known as Assynt (yes that's correctly spelt and I bet not many Scots have heard of it) that includes the village of Drumbeg, great whisky and the sheep making other sheep (if you know what I mean, really funny but I guess you had to be there)

All in all we would say an absolutely must do motorcycle tour. We loved it and will definitely be doing it again!!!!