02/11/24
We had an early start to John O’Groats and got to the main car park before anyone else. Nothing was open yet and the only sign of life was someone wandering round the car park picking up litter.
A Walk to Duncansby Head
The wind was blowing but the sun was shining. We decided to walk along the coast to the lighthouse on Duncansby Head while we waited for the cafe to open up. As we exited the van the door was wrenched from Paul’s hand. It was going to be a blowy day.
The walk to the lighthouse took us down to the small John O’Groats harbour where the path starts between the Groats Gateway. We had not walked LEJOG (Lands End to John O’Groats) or the shorter John O’Groats trail ( a mere 147 miles from Inverness) but we walked through the arch anyway. Who knows, we may never get another opportunity.
Near the gateway is a memorial to the men who lost their lives in the George Robb tragedy of 1959. All lives were lost in this disaster off Duncansby Head. Proving that these tragic seafaring accidents aren’t just things of the past, the memorial also includes a tribute to the lives lost in 2015 when the MV Cemfjord sank with all hands in an accident so swift that no one raised any distress signal.
Seafarer’s memorial in John O’Groats
As we set off along the coast we could see the rushing Pentland Firth beside us. This stretch of water between Scotland and the Orkney islands has incredibly strong tidal currents that cause whirlpools and other tidal features. This was the sea we were due to cross in a few days.
The coast path was sandy at first with neat short grass and sandy hollows, proper ‘links land’ that inspired the design of golf courses.
Sandy coastline
After the Bay of Sannick it started to climb up towards the rocky cliffs of Duncansby Head where a sea arch and narrow inlets are carved into the striated sandstone of the high cliffs.
Duncansby Head lighthouse is a fairly ordinary lighthouse in the gold and while livery that seems to be common to all Scottish Lighthouses. And also like many of them it was designed by one of the famous Lighthouse Stevensons.
Duncansby Lighthouse
On the other side of the lighthouse the cliffs drop slightly to a viewpoint above a beach where we had an amazing and unexpected view of grey seals with their pups on the beach, a spectacle that completely outshone the impressive sea stacks.
Duncansby Sea Stacks and the beach where we saw the seals
Seal Pups – taken with a long lens
John O’Groats
The return to John O’Groats was straight back across the boggy moorland. When we got back we had to go and get our pictures taken with the signpost. How could we say we’d been to John O’Groats if we didn’t have that picture? Just like Lands End is neither the most Southerly or Westerly point in the UK, John O’Groats is neither the most Northerly or the most Easterly point. But somehow both locations have become lodged in our minds as the extreme ends of the country. Luckily John O’Groats isn’t quite the massively overpriced tourist trap that is Land’s End.
We popped into the cafe for some lunch. Paul had a Haggis and Cheese melt which made it into his top three of melted cheese experiences. From the cafe we could see the sculpture outside that represents the power of the Pentand Firth to move giant boulders around on the sea floor.
Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion artwork called Nomadic Boulders
What does Paddington Bear have to do with John O’Groats? Not a lot, but this is part of a country wide Paddington trail.
Ferry View Campsite
Our next stop for a couple of days was Ferry View campsite. This quirky campsite is almost opposite the road down to Gill’s Bay where we were due to get the ferry.
Parked at Ferry View
I had warmed Paul up to the fact that we would need to book our times in the bathroom. The campsite operate a schedule for using the shower facilities so that the bathrooms can be kept clean between use. When we arrived though, we were told that we would have a bathroom to ourselves as they were restricting the number of pitches available. The family who live here and run the campsite also care for their brother so were ensuring they had time for him alongside everything else they do.
I spent the next two days working, the weather was a bit damp so we didn’t make the most of the campsite but we did have a little walk down to the see the ferry terminal. We had delicious Pizza one night from “Mr Eddy’s”, the on-site take-away. We chose to eat in our van, but there is a converted bus with heating which can be used for eating or just hanging out.
Work out of the way we were ready to venture even further north, onwards to Orkney.