We drove the North Coast 500 in January because we could not afford to wait until summer. The loch froze overnight. The van did not.

The NC500 in summer is spectacular but it is not quiet. The road that circles the north of Scotland attracts an enormous number of campervans in July and August — so many, in some spots, that the laybys resemble mobile home parks. We wanted empty glens and frozen lochs and a reasonable probability that the road ahead would be ours alone. January delivered all three, plus some driving conditions that tested our composure considerably.

What Nobody Warns You About

The darkness. In January in the far north of Scotland, sunrise is around 9am and sunset is around 3:30pm. That is six and a half hours of daylight. You adapt, but it takes longer than you expect. We started driving as soon as the light appeared and stopped well before it left. The evenings were very long. We read more books in two weeks than we had in the previous six months.

The ice. Single-track Highland roads in January can be treacherous. We had all-season tyres, which helped. We also had the sense to stop driving when the road started to look wet in a suspicious way. We got stuck once, briefly, on a hill near Tongue. A farmer in a Land Rover materialised from nowhere, attached a rope to our van without being asked, and pulled us out in under four minutes. He refused payment and drove away.

“The scenery rewards you in a way that summer photographs cannot capture. Everything is steel and ice and ancient.”

But the scenery — the scenery rewards you in a way that summer photographs cannot capture. Loch Maree in January is steel grey and enormous and absolutely silent. The mountains above Torridon are dusted white and savage. The road between Ullapool and Lochinver winds through landscape that makes you feel entirely and appropriately small. We would go again in a heartbeat.