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Published: November 6th 2023
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Wick Harbour
The weather had breached two harbour walls and closed the bridge! We’re on the NC500! a route we’ve been wanting to take for some time, the glorious coast of the wild Highlands. Launched in 2015 by North Highland Tourism, it was intended to be Scotland’s route 66, bringing much needed income to businesses in the remote Highlands. A circular route, north of Inverness. All seemed to be well until ‘lockdown’ and staycations of 2020/21, causing a huge increase in campervans and motorhomes driving the route. We were aware there had been some bad press about motorhomes undertaking the NC500, poor thoughtless driving and camping, making for some really fed-up locals. However, we only found fabulous scenery and friendly people.
Its quite a challenge heading into the Highlands at the end of October, most of the campsites are shut so it was a matter of negotiating some ‘off grid’ places to stay, interspersed with some sites that might have electric, and most welcome a warm shower! We are self contained, have a good battery and are cosy with gas heating and hot water, but these are long dark nights, so we welcomed the opportunity of using electric hook up when available.
Heading north from Inverness, we wandered and watched the wild
waves at Dornoch Beach, stopped for a scotch pie at the seaside town of Golspie, then headed for Brora. We found a lovely campsite so close to the beach you could hear the waves all night. The land between us and the sea was a thin stretch of golf course, populated by sheep and cows! We stayed a couple of nights here. It was our intention not to rush the route and experience the journey. Experience we did as we walked along the coast into the small town of Brora and got soaked coming back. Luckily the campsite had dryers!
Heading further north our next stop was Dunbeath. We had coffee and scones at a very fancy restaurant, we were tempted to stay for dinner, but were told by a friendly bartender that there was a nice walk to see a Broch. There are many of these across Scotland, built as round stone fortified houses. So, we walked to see the interesting ruin of Dunbeath Broch, and got wet again!
Next stop was Wick. Rather a sad town, many shops had closed down, but we found a fabulous little heritage centre, with very enthusiastic volunteers, and learnt all
about the herring fishing industry here. There was a fantastic exhibition of old photographs.
We stopped for the night at Noss Head, a remote headland, the weather was really really wild, buffeting the van all night. However, the morning brought a lovely surprise as we explored the area and found the amazing Sinclair Girngoe Castle literally perched on the edge of the cliff. Now a ruin but once an extravagant enormous castle, it was lived in by some extraordinary people and had quite a chequered history, tales of locking up and starving family members, and many family feuds.
Driving back through Wick to get back on our route we saw the most incredible sight of the harbour completely being washed over by enormous waves, the result of last night’s gale. They had closed the towns’ bridge, so it was lucky we had crossed it last night. We headed on to John O’Groats a rather disappointing town, but took our photo as it’s seen as the most northerly town of the UK. I was really impressed to see the Orkney Islands from here and nearby Duncansby head, so beautiful but inaccessible today as no ferries were running because of
the storm. Technically I believe Dunnet head is the most northerly point of the UK, we took a trip up to the headland, again fascinated by the wild waves, and settled for a quieter night in a small campsite on the beautiful beach of Dunnet bay.
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