Spoiled for Choice: Why the Northwest Highlands Take Time
As guests drive towards Eddrachilles for the first time, some wonder: what is there to do here? The reality is, of course, that most are spoiled for choice and many wish they had booked more time in the Northwest Highlands. Three nights based at Eddrachilles Hotel is really just the starting point.
North Coast 500
The North Coast 500 passes Eddrachilles close to its midpoint from Inverness. The hotel is roughly forty miles north of Ullapool if you are travelling clockwise, and just under thirty miles south of Durness if you are heading the other way. This northwest stretch of the North Coast 500 is the least populated: a landscape shaped by ancient geology, long light of the Arctic periphery, and turbulent social history. It has Atlantic weather systems that arrive unannounced. This is landscape on a scale that resists hurry and holds variety.
Some NC500 itineraries drive straight through this section while others allow merely a single night here before moving on. It’s an understandable choice if the aim is primarily to complete the route. But the northwest Highlands does not reveal itself at that pace. Three nights — with two full days between arrival and departure — marks a threshold. It reveals the wide range of options for activities or well-being and relaxation. It is also the point at which this place begins to be understood and appreciated rather than fleetingly observed..
This is not an argument for doing less. It is an argument for doing things properly.
Arrival: allowing the place to take hold
Eddrachilles Hotel with the NC500 to the left and Badcall Bay in front
Arriving at Eddrachilles, you leave the A894 and turn down a driveway that brings you to a former Church of Scotland manse, built in the 1800s, overlooking Badcall Bay. The building sits quietly above the shore. Ten rooms. A small team. No sense of throughput. Arrival is unhurried.
Rooms face either the bay or the sheltered courtyard garden, where bird feeders draw goldfinches, coal tits and redpolls, and — in early summer — migrating reed warblers returning from sub-Saharan Africa. Binoculars are provided for a reason. On the other side of the building from the sea view rooms , guests watch the skerries appear and disappear regularly with the tide. Light moves across the hill Quinag to the south. Sea birds circle the day boats heading to the pier.
In the late afternoon, complimentary tea, coffee and home baking are served in the sun lounge or by the fire, depending on season and weather. This is often the moment when guests stop driving, stop planning, and begin to arrive properly. Conversations start here — with other guests, with us, and with the landscape itself through the glass.
Dinner is served in The Glebe Kitchen, the hotel’s AA Rosette restaurant set in the original manse kitchen. Menus change frequently, shaped by what is available locally rather than by fixed rotation: Badcall Bay crab landed nearby, venison from the surrounding hills, Scotch beef from known Highland herds. There are three sittings each evening but service itself is paced to suit the table, not a timetable
The first evening is not about ticking anything off. It is about settling into a different place and pace. On the second and third evenings you will be confident about which dinner sitting suits you best, where to find your choice of reading on the many bookshelves, which whisky you want to try next from the 60+ malts on the bar. You may also be having a quiet word with our team requesting a favourite dish be included in the next night’s menu (we will do our best).
Two full days: choosing what suits you
With two full days ahead, the question shifts on that first night. It is no longer “what must we see?” but “what kind of days do we want to have?” Will it be focused on the iconic, artistic, exhilarating, adventurous, natural, historic or simply relaxing?
For some guests, the iconic appeals, those experiences or sights that are deeply associated with the northwest Highlands. . Handa Island with its Scottish Wildlife reserve and ruins from the “voluntary” clearances, is reached by a short ferry crossing (pedestrian) leaving from Tarbet, about 15 minutes’ drive from Eddrachilles Hotel. There is a well maintained walk across moorland to seabird cliffs alive with guillemots, razorbills and - nesting in burrows - puffins. Other so called “must see” attractions are our beaches: Oldshoremore, Clashnessie or Achmelvich, and Sandwood Bay, where white sand and clear water invite long walks, rock-pooling, or simply the pleasure of space. Or The Wailing Widow’s Falls (Allt Chranaidh) or Ardvreck Castle, a ruin with many tales involving mermaids, a pact with the Devii
Beaches - our long evening light makes it possible to have dinner with us and head out to catch a 10pm mid-summer sunset for that most romantic of moments.
But three nights also make room for a different kind of energy. Some guests book ahead for a session at Fangamore Art Studio, where small-group workshops in acrylics range from beginners’ introductions to more confident explorations of landscape or even creating a portrait of a beloved pet. Others head north to Durness for the Golden Zipwire across the sands — fast, physical, and unapologetically exhilarating — or (when weather permits) take a boat trip into Smoo Cave, where sea, rock, a waterfall, and scale combine in a way that feels quietly dramatic rather than contrived.
Inland, the Bone Caves at Inchnadamph offer something altogether different: bones and fossils dating back to Palaeolithic times have been discovered here, and these spaces in the limestone reward curiosity as much as spectacle or adrenaline.. Or following the Road Routes around the NW Highlands Geopark and visiting The Rockstop centre.
Seasonal boat trips from Lochinver, Kylesku or Ullapool reveal the landscape from a different perspective to the car journey. Sea stacks and islands of the NW Highlands Geopark are breath-taking, Alongside may come dolphins, seals and seabirds or even the occasional whales, watching a pod surface alongside the boat has a way of recalibrating a distracted, stressed mind, whatever your age.
For hillwalkers, the choice is wide: Suilven, Quinag, Canisp, Ben Stack, Ben Hope, Foinaven and Arkle are all within reach, alongside gentler routes, coastal walks, sections of the Cape Wrath Trail and shorter dog-friendly outings. Maps, local knowledge and a drying room are part of the practicalities. at Eddrachilles.
While Eddrachilles is not a fishing hotel with direct arrangements for local beats and daily friendly competition (we recommend Scourie Hotel for that immersive experience), we do happily host those who might want a single day’s fishing. North Coast Sea Tours offer charters for sea angling while Stewart Yates of Assynt Fly Fishing and James Curly at Elphin are two local fishing guides who can coach basic to advanced skills and take you deep into the hinterland or onto a loch or shore for exceptional fishing. Book as soon as possible - they are in great demand.
And sometimes the most compelling choice is the smallest one. A walk of seventy metres from the sun lounge brings you to the shore of Badcall Bay. At low tide, islands connect by causeways. Seals haul out on the rocks. If you sit quietly, they will watch you. Some guests sing; one reads poetry aloud, another knitted under a fascinated gaze. The seals seem to approve. Request a picnic basket or a packed lunch the evening before or wander into Scourie to sample award winning Crofter's Kitchen. Doing nothing here is actually about doing something, the important work of nurturing well being and restorative relaxation.
What three nights make possible is not the ability to do everything, but the freedom to mix days with momentum and days with pause — without the sense that you should already be moving on, packing your luggage having only just unpacked.
Parents, grandparents, teenagers and shared time
Our guide on the website shows which of the most popular hill climbs here may suit individual skill levels, enthusiasm or energy levels.
Three nights also allow different members of a group to have different kinds of days — sometimes on the same day. Family groups have a wide variety of forms in the 21st Century, it’s not just about two parents and younger children. For parents or single parents travelling with teenagers (we welcome guests over 12 years old), young adult students joining parents for a special anniversary trip; or for families spanning middle and older generations, that flexibility matters. We’ve had more than one adult Grandson taking Grandma on holiday (and revised our life goals accordingly!). We’ve also had our hearts deeply touched by the adult child taking their terminally ill parent on a last trip - the privilege of serving them forever remembered.
One person may head for a hill or a boat trip; another may choose an art workshop, a long beach walk, or simply time to read and recover. There are board games…craft kits…water colours (all available) by the fire side. .
The point is not to coordinate every hour, but to know there is enough time and enough choice to respond to the day as it unfolds — including whichever version of your teenager emerges that morning, the charmer or the less enthusiastic, lower energy one (been there on both counts!).
Returning: how understanding takes shape
This is the point shorter stays tend to miss: the value of repeating and returning in a landscape where so much changes hour upon hour.
A beach visited twice reveals so much more than one visited once. Our bay seen at high tide bears little resemblance to itself at low water, there can be a 5m shift between tides. The same place encountered after exertion feels different from the same place met in stillness. These contrasts matter. For minds that are filled with the pressures and demands of everyday life, coming back to somewhere beautiful and familiar gives the brain immediate permission to power down and take in the details of here and now.
They matter within the hotel too. By the third afternoon, guests know where they like to sit, who they are likely to meet over tea, which conversations they want to continue. Teenagers who were initially sceptical often discover independence within safe bounds — a walk to the shore, time with binoculars, space to decompress. Older family members find the rhythm forgiving rather than demanding.
Many conversations include people who have been coming here for years, sometimes decades. They return because the northwest rewards familiarity. Each visit adds another layer rather than replacing the last. Deep time but ever evolving.
Travelling with dogs
Split rock - one of the recommended dog walking routes available
Many of our guests travel with dogs, often opting for longer stays. Dogs, like people, tend to settle best when they are not constantly on the move. Staying in one place allows routines, walking routes and surroundings to become familiar. With their pack and territorial instincts, even placid dogs can find repeatedly changing hotels to be a strain.
We charge a single dog fee per stay rather than per night, reflecting how our guests actually travel. Dogs are welcome throughout much of the hotel, with designated dining tables, and there is excellent walking . We ask only that dogs are kept under control, respectful of other guests and wildlife, and not left unattended in rooms without letting us know beforehand. In return, there’s quite a few wee extras waiting in our award winning dog-friendly hospitality
For many couples and solo travellers, travelling with a dog is one of the reasons they choose to stay longer — not to fit more in, but to enjoy the Northwest Highlands at a pace that suits everyone, including their best friend.
Departure: leaving with something that lasts
Autumn sunrise 2025, no filter applied.
On the final morning, some guests rise early to see the emergence of the light they have been watching for days — how it strikes the mountains at dawn, how it lifts from the bay. Breakfast is unhurried. There is time for a last walk, a final tray of complimentary coffee or tea service in the lounges, consulting maps before moving on. Heading south, perhaps this is the day for that visit to Knockan Crags with its information on the start of modern geology. Going NE, perhaps take the Hope Road through the centre of Sutherland as part of that journey.
Three nights do not offer completion. Three billion years of geology cannot be completed in a long weekend, or a week, or a lifetime. What three nights offer is something quieter and more durable: the beginnings of a relationship with this place. An understanding of its variability. A sense of how weather, tide, light and human presence intersect and interact.
The North Coast 500 has brought many people to this part of the Highlands. For some, the pleasure lies in completing the circuit efficiently. That is a legitimate way to travel — but it is not the one for which Eddrachilles Hotel is designed.. We are best suited to those who value having time: time to adapt plans, to return to places, and to let both people and dogs settle properly.
If that approach appeals, three nights at Eddrachilles offers a good starting point — not for finishing the northwest, but for beginning to understand it. Should you feel that you want to stay five or more nights, making Eddrachilles a base for your Highland exploration, well, look at our new long stay rates and talk to us about the many other activities..
