How the North Coast 500 can help tackle depopulation in the Scottish Highlands

The Highlands are at great risk from depopulation - but is the soaring tourism industry the answer to this growing problem?

Every year, tens of thousands of tourists descend on the Highlands to drive the now infamous North Coast 500.

Stretching 500 miles along the far-north Highlands from Inverness, the circular route takes visitors from far and wide to some of the most remote parts of the country.

But these areas are at serious risk from depopulation - in fact, Highland Council predicts the region’s population will fall by more than 5 per cent by 2040.

For those traversing the North Coast 500, Smoo Cave is a dramatic sea cave set within Sutherland's limestone cliffs. | grafxart - stock.adobe.com

David Richardson, development manager at the North Coast 500 (NC500), said he believed tourism could be the solution to this “truly worrying” trend. He suggested the draw of the road trip could help tackle the modern-day Highland Clearances.

“We get a lot of comments from people who simply don’t want tourism,” Mr Richardson said. “They came here for a quiet life and don’t want people driving around the whole time.

“But we have to think about our children and grandchildren. The future of the north is very precariously balanced with demographic decline.

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“Areas like Plockton, Ullapool and Bettyhill are seeing a 50 per cent decline in population. In Gairloch, the school had 200 pupils at the millennium and now it [the roll] is only 80, and that’s projected to fall to 66.

“Retired people are moving here because they love the area, but that is not the future.”

With more and more tourists flocking to drive the NC500, more and more businesses are needed to sustain all these holiday-makers - and more businesses means more young people either choosing to stay in the area, or making the move north for the jobs.

Mr Richardson said: “The North Coast 500 has created sustainability because not enough people were heading north from Inverness.

“We are helping sustain businesses whose owners will bring up their children here, creating employment and investment. But too often it is seen as overcrowding the roads with campervans and interrupting the peace and quiet.”

David Richardson | North Coast 500

The 2022 census showed half of the council wards in the Highlands experienced a declining population over the previous decade.

While Highland Council area as a whole saw a 1.4 per cent increase in its population between 2011 and 2022, ten of the 21 council wards saw a decline.

Analysis the areas the North Coast 500 covers, there was a 7 per cent fall in population in Thurso and Northwest Caithness, a 5.6 per cent decline in North West and Central Sutherland, and a 2.6 per cent drop in Wick and East Caithness.

By comparison, the population of Inverness South rose by 27.7 per cent.

Once Inverness is taken out of the equation, secondary school rolls are forecast to drop by 12.5 per cent across the Highlands over the next 15 years.

While not strictly part of the official NC500 route, other areas which benefit from the tourists heading to the north Highlands are also suffering.

There was a 6.5 per cent population decline in Badenoch and Strathspey, which led to the closure of two primary schools in Dalwhinnie and Laggan in recent years.

The Western Isles are also expected to experience a 6 per cent decline by 2028.

Rubha Reidh Lighthouse, near Gairloch in Wester Ross, stands at the entrance to Loch Ewe, at one of the most dramatic locations on the north-west | Ian Cowe

Between 2001 and 2021, the number of children under the age of 16 in the Highlands dropped by 6.7 per cent. On the other hand, the number of people over the age of 75 increased by 60.6 per cent.

Not only does this have an impact on school rolls and the number of people available to work in businesses on the North Coast 500, it also puts a strain on other public services such as the health and social care sector.

Mr Richardson said: “Everyone complains about tourism, but still wants the results.

“Tourism creates businesses in the area like cafes, restaurants and leisure businesses, but the local population is not big enough on its own to support them.

“Retirees are coming here in droves, but we need young families and they will only be attracted if there are vibrant communities with a buzz about them for them to go to.”

He added: “We need to make this area worth inheriting for the young people of tomorrow, so we need to make sure there are jobs and opportunities for them so they don’t turn into economic migrants.

“I’d like to think we are recognising the problems remote communities are facing and are putting serious resources into helping them by supporting businesses.

“Businesses are the beating hearts of these communities and getting them to beat stronger will help rural economies.”

Depopulation is something Fergus Ewing MSP has been seeing for years around his constituency of Inverness and Nairn.

But while he recognises the challenges high tourism is bringing to the area, he also realises the need for better infrastructure.

He said: “For people who live along the route of the North Coast 500, especially in the remote parts of the far north and north-west, everything really to the west of Thurso, there are issues with littering, waste disposal and congestion caused by having so many vehicles on the road.

Campers and cars on the North Coast 500 | Paul Campbell/Getty Images

“But perhaps some of the land could be used as aires.”

Aires are a French concept that is starting to catch on in the Highlands and elsewhere in Scotland.

It is a place to park a motorhome overnight for a small cost, with basic facilities provided such as waste disposal and litter bins.

A number of aires have been created on the NC500 route, including at John O’Groats, Dunnet Head, Durness, Smoo Cave, Kinlochbervie and Latheron.

It comes as a £40 motorhome permit was introduced last year by Highland Council, with overnight bays painted into 12 car parks in the north and north west.

Mr Ewing said he believed small grants could be made available from the Scottish Government's rural support fund to help farmers, tenant farmers and crofters use some of their land as aires during the busy summer months.

He said farmers would be willing to put in the work to make things better in their area, adding: “These people know the land and have lived there for centuries, and they would be able to manage overnight facilities themselves.

“All they would need is a hard steading, safe access to the road and waste disposal facilities.

“That could alleviate some of the pressures people are experiencing on the North Coast 500 and some of the tensions between residents and tourists.”

Mr Ewing has submitted this idea to the National Farmers’ Union’s Highland branch in the hopes the organisation will support his idea.

The SNP veteran said: “Twenty per cent of people will be against everything all of the time, but this could have an impact on illegal parking and careless and obnoxious behaviour from a minority of people.

Fergus Ewing | Press Association

“If you provide facilities, people would rather use them than take illegal actions in almost all cases. There has to be a reasonable balance, because how else do we keep people in these remote and rural communities?

“After Brexit, young people are no longer coming from European countries to work, so we need a solution to tackle depopulation.”

Regardless, the businesses who rely on the NC500 trade are hoping for a bumper year in 2025.

Mr Richardson said he hoped the warm and sunny weather of the past week would make people consider staycations in Scotland and trips up to the Highlands over the summer months.

“There is some fantastic weather at the moment, and long may it continue,” Mr Richardson said. “I was in Applecross last week and people were moving around with smiles on their faces, but it is still quiet.

“There are some concerns that after last year’s bad weather, particularly in the west, that it will influence people to go somewhere else where it’s warm.

“There is clearly competition with foreign holidays and businesses are being left in difficult positions financially. We are very conscious we are competing in an international market.”

A vehicle drives on the North Coast 500 route, a few miles outside of Applecross. Picture: John Devlin | John Devlin/National World

Research produced by the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) claimed the 516-mile route, in just the first two years, boosted business by 15 to 20 per cent year on year and led to a 26 per cent rise in visitor numbers and a 10 per cent increase in traffic.

But a 2021 report on visitor pressures by the John Muir Trust found many rural communities felt a “democratic deficit” regarding the implementation of tourist developments.

Attracting visitors from overseas to come to the NC500 remains high up the agenda for businesses in the Highlands, as they tend to spend more than domestic tourists.

But that does not mean domestic tourists seeking a Highland staycation are not also valuable to businesses in the area, as they can be repeat customers who return year after year.

Mr Richardson said: “The UK market’s average spend is less than the overseas market, so the more overseas visitors the better because they are spending more.

“But the North Coast 500 is a shop window and it is luring people back and encouraging them to do repeat holidays.

“We want them to slow down when they travel here, go off the beaten track, talk to the local people and soak up the atmosphere.”