Durness Scotland sits on the Northwest tip of mainland Great Britain, and as we made our way clockwise around Scotland’s North Coast 500 route (with some diversions from the route), this marked our changing direction from North to West.
Of all of the places that we visited — and we visited so many — Durness is near the top of the list of places I’d love to return to.
Why? Other places offered, perhaps, more to do, and other places were memorable for unique accommodations (want to stay in a castle?) but, as a budding birder and bird photographer, I regret that I didn’t have the time, here, to make the venture out to Faraid Head near the northernmost point in Durness.
There, if you time it right, you can see puffins. I missed the puffins.
But this was still an area that I loved — here are some tips on Durness Scotland things to do and accommodations if you’re considering making your trip around the NC500.
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Table of Contents
Where is Durness?
Durness is located at the Northwest of Great Britain:
Beaches
When planning to go to the Scottish Highlands, I thought of green rolling hills, standing stones, castle ruins, men in kilts, and Outlander. I knew there’d be sheep. But, even though it’s coastal, I didn’t think about white, sandy beaches. But that’s what I found in Durness.
Even though these sandy beaches aren’t tropical, I’m enchanted with any beach that isn’t rocky, like the beaches near my PNW home. But, of course, you take your chance with the weather when visiting Northern Scotland — even in August when we went. We, fortunately, had lovely weather until we hit a rainy patch when we drove into St. Andrews later on our trip.
And, since we’re talking about weather — and August — I’ll mention the Scottish midge, which is common at the time I went. I’ll likely mention it again in other posts about our trip. It wasn’t bad in Durness, actually — but there were some areas we stopped that were so thick with the midge that I found myself running through a cloud of bugs with my hood over my head to get back to the vehicle. This was primarily in Northern Scotland — and primarily when we ventured into more outlying areas.
Right in Durness, you’ll find Durness Beach; just down the road a bit, there’s a small cove called Sangomore Beach, and a bit farther along the road is Ceannabeinne Beach. The star of them, though, for me, is Balnakeil Beach.
If you walk North of it, to Faraid Head, that’s where you (might) find the puffins. You’ll find Atlantic puffins, not the tufted puffins I’ve searched for in my area.
Apparently, the best time to see the birds there is from May to July. As you might expect, there are also bird and whale watching tours in the area if you want to go by boat.
We were just a bit late — and during our romp around the highlands, I was traveling without binoculars and with a Sony RX100V and VI (I’d just bought one and went on the trip before selling the old one) — great camera, but it has its limitations. I’m returning someday with my complete kit, as Northern Scotland has so many amazing landscapes. And puffins.
Balnakeil Beach
Durness Beach
Ceannabeinne Beach and Ceannabeinne Township Trail
Sangomore Beach
Smoo Cave
For some reason, the name Smoo Cave strikes me as funny. Perhaps it’s because I think of the Shmoo in ‘Lil Abner (hey, I grew up with older parents!). But the name Smoo is thought to come from either the Gaelic word “smùid,” meaning a fine spray, or Norse “smjúga” or “smuga,” referring to a hole or cleft. 1
I couldn’t pass up a cave with a waterfall (where the “fine spray” mentioned comes from) or such a fascinating history. According to a sign I recall reading near the cave, smugglers used the cave in the past. I could definitely picture, perhaps, whisky smugglers using the cave as their den!
There’s quite a walk down to the cave, but if you’re interested in seeing a cave with a waterfall, the walk is worth it. Remember, you need to walk back up!
Smoo Cave Tours offers tours of the cave which allow you to get closer up to the waterfall and see more of the cave than if you just walk in, like we did. If you have time, I’d definitely recommend booking a tour to see this, as it will likely enhance your experience.
Smoo Cave
John Lennon Memorial Garden
Durness has a connection with John Lennon. According to a sign at the John Lennon Memorial Garden, he spent many Summers in the area between the ages of nine and thirteen. He’d later return there to visit with Yoko Ono as he associated happy memories with the place.
The memorial garden was established in 2002 and features standing stones inscribed with lyrics from “In My Life.”
John Lennon Memorial Garden
Did you know that John Lennon spent happy childhood summers in Durness? There's a memorial garden with lyrics to "In My Life" engraved on standing stones near the center of town.
Lodging
You won’t find any large hotels in Durness. Lodging is small-scale, with a number of B&Bs and VRBO-type accommodations.
We also noted a number of caravans making the NC500 route. There are a couple of roadside, overnight parking-type spots near Durness, but the primary (and prime) spot for RVing is Sango Sands Oasis, which sits on the bluff overlooking the beach.
We stayed at Smoo Lodge Bed and Breakfast, which was close to everything and (as the name implies) pretty close to Smoo Cave.
For luxury accommodations, Mackay’s Rooms is right in town and located in a stone house. And listed as being “romantic,” so consider that if you’re planning a couples trip!
List of Durness Scotland Accommodation
I haven’t stayed at most of these places, but we went past a few. If you want to look at them on a map, you can visit our maps page and zoom into Northern Scotland.
This isn’t an exhaustive list; there are a few more B&Bs and VRBOs in the area, but these are the ones that I know of. If you have a location that should be on this list, you can add it here.
Mackay's Rooms
Wallaby's
Smoo Cave Hotel
Durness Youth Hostel
Sango Sands Oasis
Smoo Lodge
Dining
The problem with writing about a trip too long after you take it, especially when there was a pandemic on the horizon after our adventure, is that places close.
We ate at The Whale Tale, a small restaurant in Balkaneil Craft Village. I’d love to recommend it, as I recall them having vegetarian options and great soup! Unfortunately, it’s closed, and our other meals in Durness were at the B&B or on the road.
If you’ve been there or live in the area, consider adding a restaurant and a review here.
Other Durness Scotland Things to Do
Ceannabeinne Beach zip line.
If you have a sense of adventure, you can soar over amazing views at the Golden Eagle Zipline, which is the Northernmost zipline in the UK. It’s located at Ceannabeinne Beach, North of the main part of town.
Visit the Millennium Cairn
We visited a LOT of cairns on our trip around Scotland (I think my spouse was getting fatigued by my stopping at any cairn we saw.)
This one, though, isn’t old. It was built to commemorate the year 2000.
Just…walk.
I’m glad I got out and just walked around Durness without any real aim to see what I could. Along the way, I:
- Saw a rainbow
- Watched a sunset
- Saw some lovely beaches
…and was exposed to yet more sheep!
I stopped to look at some sheep near a fence and think I disturbed them as they then went walking past the fence and out onto the road (animals on the road are very common in Scotland).
I watched as a van pulled up, and an Australian Shepherd jumped out the side door, herded the sheep back into their fence, and jumped back in the van. Modern sheepherding!
Visit Balnakeil Church and Cemetery
Not everyone I know likes visiting ruins and cemeteries, but if you do, you’ll want to stop here as you travel through Durness.
The stone church is now a ruin but dates back to the 1600s. And you can view the tomb of Rob Donn, the “Reay Gaelic Bard,” whose history is pretty interesting.
Balnakeil Church and Cemetery
Related Reading
I recall several books about various places in Scotland from my trip, but none (at least that I saw in the bookstores) specifically about Durness.
But below are a couple of references about driving Northern Scotland overall — I’m finally starting to get around to working on my series on the subject!
- Benson, Brigid (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 240 Pages – 10/16/2018 (Publication Date) – Birlinn (Publisher)
- McFee, Padraig (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 60 Pages – 02/03/2024 (Publication Date) – Molten Gold Publications (Publisher)
And I would definitely recommend having a navigator-type map book if you’re driving around Scotland — even if you have GPS. I’ll probably say this in every post on the subject, but I was glad I had one both because there were times our GPS did not help and times I found little spots off the beaten path that I wouldn’t have otherwise known about.
- Philip’s Maps (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 144 Pages – 05/06/2021 (Publication Date) – Philip’s (Publisher)
Durness Photo Gallery
Below are some images taken in Durness, either that we took on our trip (images on that trip were mostly taken with a Sony RX100V) or that visitors have uploaded in one of our location galleries. Anything tagged “Durness.”
Reflecting back on Durness, my favorite part was just walking around the area — and visiting Smoo Cave.
Have you been to Durness Scotland? Any additional things you’d recommend in the area?Footnotes
- Smoo Cave. (2024, November 9). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoo_Cave[↩]