Driving down the Bealach na Bà on the spectacular North Coast 500 Route with Andy and Di.
Bealach na Bà is a winding single track road through the mountains of the Applecross peninsula in the Scottish Highlands. The Bealach na Bà is just one feature on this road, being its highest point and site of several corries. The historic mountain pass was built in 1822 and is engineered similarly to roads through the great mountain passes in the Alps, with very tight hairpin bends that switch back and forth up the hillside and gradients that approach 20%. It has the steepest ascent of any road climb in the UK, rising from sea level at Applecross to 626 metres (2,054 ft), and is the third highest road in Scotland.
The name is Scottish Gaelic for Pass of the Cattle, as it was historically used as a drovers’ road. Bealach na Ba is pronounced Bee-al-uch nu Ba(h).
The Bealach, as it is known for short, is unsuitable for learner drivers, large vehicles and motorhomes and often impassable in winter.
One Responses
I first went over the Bealloch Na Ba in 1938 with my Dad driving a Morris 12. I remember we had stopped to look back at the view when a motorist on his way down stopped to help us thinking that we had car trouble. Dad and he had a chat and this fellow said that there was a hairpin ahead which was impossible to get round in less than three locks. This was like a red rag to a bum to Dad who had been driving during the war and many miles since in his job as a company rep.
He had several shots at it and finally made it in two!
I went over a few years ago and it was a lot easier though still just as steep!