Ballachulish Driving Test Centre
The Ballachulish driving test centre is located in Ballachulish, Scotland (PH49 4JU). Below are the official pass-rate statistics, multi-year trend, demographic breakdown, and how this centre compares against the UK average and its neighbours, all drawn from the DVSA quarterly statistical release.
Pass vs fail at a glance
193 passed, 129 failed, 322 total
How Ballachulish compares
Ballachulish performs well above the UK average. Learners passing here are more likely to pass than at most other UK centres, though this can also reflect quieter test routes and fewer challenging junctions.
Where Ballachulish ranks among 323 centres
Pass-rate trend by year
Most common faults at this centre
The fault categories most frequently recorded against learners on test. Knowing them lets you target practice on the things examiners are most likely to penalise.
- 1Junctions - observation10
- 2Mirrors - change direction9
- 3Move off - safely8
- 4Junctions - turning right7
- 5Response to signs - traffic lights6
Per-centre fault breakdowns are derived from the DVSA national fault distribution applied to centre-level test outcomes.
Pass rate by demographic
Estimated wait time and demand
Wait times at Ballachulish have remained broadly stable through recent reporting periods. Booking is comparatively quick: learners booking at Ballachulish typically wait around 7 weeks from booking to test day.
Wait time is estimated from regional demand patterns reported in the National Audit Office investigation into car driving test waiting times (Dec 2024) and the DVSA Despatch blog updates, combined with this centre's test volume. Real availability fluctuates with examiner staffing and cancellations, always check the official DVSA booking service for live slots.
Centre details
Address
Source: DVSA find a driving test centre (Open Government Licence v3.0), captured 2026-05-12.
Tests offered at Ballachulish
- car
Accessibility & facilities
Parking and toilet details aren't included in DVSA's published feed. For the current on-site facilities, check the DVSA find a driving test centre tool with postcode PH49 4HP, or call DVSA Customer Services on 0300 200 1122.
About this test centre
Ballachulish sits in Ballachulish, Highland, just inside the PH49 4JU postcode. It's a DVSA-run car test centre, and the routes from here work outward into the streets and arterial roads that learners from Ballachulish tend to know already. Small sample warning: 322 tests across 2007-08-2015-16. The headline rate on this page is the multi-year aggregate, which is the only version of the number worth trusting at this volume.
59.9% at Ballachulish, against a UK car average of 48.7%. That puts the centre 11.2 points clear of the national figure and ranks it #53 of 323 car centres in the DVSA's network. First-attempt pass rate at Ballachulish: 61.8%, against 49% nationally. That's a 12.8-point lead. Well-prepared candidates with no prior test attempts pass here at a noticeably higher rate than the UK average.
All figures shown are aggregated from the DVSA quarterly statistical release covering the most recent reporting periods available. Pass-rate calculations exclude tests cancelled by the candidate or examiner. Sample sizes and methodology are described in the source attribution at the foot of this page.
What learners should know about Ballachulish
- Ballachulish passes higher than the UK average, but the marking sheet is identical to every other DVSA centre. The bias is in the routes (less traffic, simpler junction geometry); the standard is national.
- 61.8% of first-timers pass at Ballachulish. If your instructor is signing you off as test-ready, that figure is a fair guide, the centre isn't the variable, your preparation is.
- Ballachulish is a low-volume centre (322 tests on record). Period-to-period swings can look dramatic without much underlying change, read the multi-year aggregate rather than any single quarter's figure.
- If you can, take at least one lesson with an instructor who specifically works the Ballachulish routes. Local instructors know which junctions are the centre's hardest and will drill them.
- The only legitimate booking route is gov.uk. Anything calling itself a "test booking concierge" is reselling the same slots at a markup, the slots aren't theirs to control.
Other test centres nearby
On the day at Ballachulish
Turn up at Ballachulish ten minutes before your appointment, and check ahead where you can park, DVSA sites vary on that. You can preview the location on the DVSA centre finder (postcode PH49 4JU). At low demand and roughly 7 weeks' wait, getting a date that works for you is usually straightforward. The examiner will ask to see your provisional photocard licence before anything else, and your car must carry L plates and a working interior mirror. If Fort William is fully booked, Ballachulish is the next closest centre, roughly 10 miles away.
Expect about 40 minutes once you set off, to the same national DVSA script. It opens with an eyesight check at 20 metres and one show-me plus one tell-me question, after which the examiner rides along for the drive. Around 20 minutes of that is independent driving, guided either by a sat nav the examiner provides or by road signs to a named destination, with one of four set manoeuvres and a one-in-three chance of an emergency stop. The drive covers the local mix of road types within roughly a twenty-minute radius of the centre. Across recent DVSA marking, the fault logged most often at this centre is junctions - observation, worth drilling on the local routes before your date.
Results come immediately on return to the centre. The examiner talks you through any faults marked, prints the DL25 feedback form, and (if you passed) takes your provisional licence so the full one can be issued by post. A pass needs no more than 15 driving faults and zero serious or dangerous faults, the standard 59.9% of candidates at Ballachulish meet under current DVSA marking.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass rate at Ballachulish?
Is Ballachulish an easy or hard test centre?
How does Ballachulish compare to the UK average?
How many tests are taken at Ballachulish each year?
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Data: DVSA quarterly statistical release, released under the Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRates.uk aggregates DVSA centre-level totals across reporting periods.
Edited by Vikas. DVSA data period: 2015-16.