I live on the North Coast 500 route in a community I have spent time in for 60 years. I can endorse much of your report (Tourists take toll on Scotland’s ‘Route 66’, 25 May). Yes, it has brought business to the area, but the volume increase is nowhere near the increase in footfall – or tyre-fall. Rent a camper van in Inverness, load up in Tesco, and crawl off, sleeping and defecating where you please. You don’t need to read the information about single-track roads, and if the local post-person is stuck behind you, so be it: you are driving as fast as is safe. You are here for the scenery, so the natives are irrelevant. And if you are in a motorbike convoy, why is there not a 24/7 cafe, shop/restaurant/pub? And why is there livestock all over the road?
It is easy to be negative about the impact of an initiative, brilliant in concept, where the infrastructure wasn’t thought through. What we need to do is work harder to coordinate the educational aspect of the route. Many people really do want to know more. Last week, at the launch of a funded PhD on the impact of the NC500 at the University of the Highlands and Islands, representatives of small heritage organisations were present, all volunteers who are passionate about the human history of this remote region. We don’t just have scenery and sheep, but iron age settlements, a herring station, a flagstone industry, and the legacy of the clearances etched on the townships the route passes through. Human history, not just geology and botany, is written on this landscape for those who care to discover it. With imaginative rebadging we can harness these resources more effectively to make the NC500 a slower and more fulfilling experience for residents and travellers alike.
Professor Pamela King
Clashnessie, Sutherland
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