Drivers on NC500 face 80-mile detour as Highland road closes for renewable cable

Drivers along Scotland's North Coast 500 are facing an 80-mile detour after a three-mile section of the A832 near Dundonnell is set to close for six months to connect a renewable-energy cable to the grid. The closure will run 14 hours a day, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., on a schedule that runs from Oct. 27 to mid-December and then again from January to March 2026, with 30-minute amnesty windows allowing limited traffic through.

The works are centered on Dundonnell, where the cable is being brought ashore from renewable power sources in the Western Isles and will eventually run underground from Dundonnell to Beauly, near Inverness. SSEN Transmission said it is actively considering feedback from residents and is working to minimise disruption.

Residents have launched a petition against the scale of the closure, arguing the disruption will ripple through daily life. Lisa Stewart, who lives in nearby Badcaul, said the project will make the community more isolated and could seriously affect people’s ability to attend health appointments, vet visits, deliveries and other everyday tasks. 'This is already a fragile community and isolated and this will make it more so,' she said. 'It is going to seriously impact and affect people’s ability to go to health appointments, to vet appointments, deliveries, everyday life in general.' She added: 'To plan these works during the dark winter months is just ridiculous and while we welcome the encouraging words from the SSEN, what we really need is meaningful, impactful action so that daily life can function and the community is not crippled.'

Trish Stevens, owner of the Dundonnell Hotel, warned the works could deter visitors traveling the NC500 and threaten her business. 'It could mean the difference between us actually surviving or not,' she said. 'It may require me to go to the bank and ask for a loan, which I don't want to do, unless SSEN can come with a revised plan.' Stevens added that local people feel their viewpoints are being ignored and that notice has not been long enough.

SNP MSP Maree Todd questioned the timing and location of the works, saying: 'What is being proposed is really unworkable for the community that is living there. The road will only be open three times a day. If people miss that, they have hours to wait before they can use the road. They [SSEN] need to listen carefully to the community and see if there is not a better solution than the one they have come up with.'

Niall MacLeod, SSEN Transmission project director, said: 'We would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to provide feedback to date, which we are actively considering. We are fully committed to ongoing engagement with road users, local communities and stakeholders as we develop our proposals, and we are working on solutions to minimise the impact of the proposed temporary closure in direct response to the feedback we have received so far.'

The project is part of broader efforts to connect renewable-energy sources in the Western Isles to the national grid, with the cable ultimately running underground from Dundonnell to Beauly to integrate offshore and other renewable generation into the mainland network. The disruption highlights the tensions between infrastructure development and rural access in the region, where communities rely on the A832 for essential services and travel.