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Published: August 5th 2021
Dear All
Greetings from the top of Great Britain! Yay! I made it here, to a place called Thurso, mainland Britain’s northernmost town, at the very top of this island on its northern coast, with amazing views out over the sea towards Orkney. It feels grand to be here, an important geographical place in the British Isles, and I’ve enjoyed very much spending time getting to know this most northerly mainland tip of my country.
On Tuesday morning I left the Highlands, taking a 10am train from Carrbridge station, and waving farewell to the beautiful Caingorms National Park. I was heading to Inverness, for a 12-minute changeover of train, hoping that my train wasn’t going to arrive late. It didn’t, and I made the next train, a four-hour two coach ScotRail service, following the most stunning rail route I’ve ever taken in this country. It really was quite breathtaking, and I spent most of the journey taking photos out of the right-hand side of the train. The railway passes by some amazing firths, estuaries and sounds, with stunning coastal views, as far as a small fishing village called Helmsdale. It then travels inland, following the valley of the River
Seals
Stroma IslandHelmsdale as far as a village called Forsinard, before then climbing a high plateau eastwards and then dropping down to the flat north-eastern tip of the country, going northwards again to Thurso. It really was a spectacular route, and everything out of the window seemed so remote – tiny little farmsteads in the middle of nowhere, and distant mountain peaks which probably rarely see anyone setting foot on them. In fact, I believe these northern counties of Scotland, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland and Caithness, are the most sparsely populated regions of the country. It was hard to believe that even though I had arrived in Inverness, there was still another four hours of train travel further north to go to get here. That’s longer than the journey from Doncaster to Edinburgh, and twice as long as from London to Sheffield. I’ve also worked out that I’m closer to the Faeroe Islands here than to Sheffield, and closer to Norway than to London. This place is remote, and I’m loving it.
I arrived mid-afternoon on Tuesday, and headed to my accommodation for three nights – a place called Thurso Bay Holidays, which is in fact a caravan and camp site,
Cormorant
Stroma Island which also lets out static caravans, on a beautifully scenic stretch of coast with stunning views over the sea towards Orkney to the north. I am staying in a caravan, for the first time in my life, and it is just lovely – it has two bedrooms, a living area, a kitchen and dining area, and a tiny little compact bathroom. It also has a fridge and microwave, so I can have more substantial meals than Pot Noodles and salads, for the first time in a week – yay! After settling into my caravan, the heavens opened, so I waited a little bit longer, and then there was a power cut. I rang the owner, who said the whole site is down, but fortunately the ‘leccy company came quickly and it is back on again now. The Internet connection is pretty poor though.
After this, I headed out, and enjoyed a lovely little walk along the coast of Thurso, along Thurso Bay and its beach, and up the River Thurso. I was told you can spot salmon, and sometimes seals hunting them, up the river, but I didn’t spot anything this time. My walk then took me to Tesco,
to stock up on supplies for my time here, including some Haggis! Yes, I decided to try some. After returning to my caravan, through the lovely little town centre, I heated it up, and tasted Haggis for the first time. It was quite nice, I must admit, and tasty, a bit like sausage meat. No doubt similar things go into them both, but specifically the ingredients for haggis include sheep’s stomach, heart and lungs, along with beef, suet and oatmeal. I’m sure one can appreciate my hesitancy to try the thing now. I don’t think I’ll try it again, but I’m happy that I gave it a go. Shortly I’ll be having a spot of brandy to wash it down, and then a Tesco Finest ready meal as some proper food, lol! Tomorrow I head to John O’Groats, which I’m really excited about 😊
Yay! On Wednesday I had a wonderful day, and I reached mainland Britain’s most northeasterly point of land, and the furthest place by land that you can get to from Lands End, way down in Cornwall, 874 miles away to the south: John O’Groats. I was very excited to be there, and I imagine I
A Good Sense of Humour!
A notice on an off-limits area on the train, Carrbridge to Inverness would need now at some point to go to Lands End, the other furthest point at the opposite end of Great Britain. I took a bus from Thurso and got there early, around 9.30am – I’m glad I did, as there was hardly anybody there when I arrived. When I left at 4.30pm, the place had become another tourist zoo, being quite a significant destination in the UK I guess. I had my photo taken at the famous John O’Groat’s signpost, and fortuitously, a couple of guys had also just arrived on a mammoth cycle ride from Land’s End, taking them 14 days. I congratulated them, along with many other people who gave them an applause, and had my photo taken with them also. Later in the day, I also had my photo taken with a motorbike pair, who had made the same journey in one-and-a-half days, non-stop, and riding all night! The motorbike guys seem to have their photo taken at a different place, with an “End to Enders” sign on it, which I hadn’t heard of – this must be something for those in the know! This part of the country also seems popular for motorbike guys, as
Northern Scotland
Train from Inverness to Thurso well as campervans, doing one of Scotland’s most famous road trips, the “North Coast 500”, taking in the coastal route all the way around this most northerly tip of the country. It is supposed to be really quite spectacular, but I’m afraid public transport doesn’t go along it, so I will have to leave this one for this time.
I then passed a bit of time before I had booked a Wildlife Tour by boat to nearby Stroma Island, which was just absolutely incredible! Stroma Island is an uninhabited island, or at least it has been uninhabited since 1962 when the last islanders left for the mainland. It is a small 1.5 square miles, just off the coast of John O’Groats and on the way to Orkney, lying in the middle of the Pentland Firth, the strait of water linking the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the North Sea in the east. It is apparently a very turbulent waterway, and a whirlpool often forms to the north of the island – we were fortunate that it hadn’t formed when we were there, and the tidal flows were gentle. The island is a haven for all kinds of birds
Northern Scotland
Train from Inverness to Thurso and sea life, including cormorants, skuas, seals and puffins. As well as seeing a few more puffins, and loving them again, I saw plenty of seals this time, and I took some really good photos of them as they were lying and basking on flat rocks just above the shoreline. It was lovely to see so many seals in my own country, I didn’t realise they were so abundant here!
As well as wildlife, the guide on the boat also explained the reason behind the name of John O’Groats. It comes from a Dutchman called Jan de Groot, who was commissioned by the King of Scotland in the 15
th century to run a ferry service between John O’Groats and the Orkney Islands, after the latter had just been acquired from Denmark. Over the years, his name was anglicised to John O'Groats, which we use today.
After the wonderful Wildlife Cruise, I headed off on a five-mile round walk to nearby places of interest, with some incredibly stunning scenery. First up, a two-mile walk even further eastwards than John O’Groats took me to Duncansby Head, and its lighthouse, marking the most northeasterly point of Great Britain. A further mile
Northern Scotland
Train from Inverness to Thurso to the south took me to the absolutely incredible Duncansby Stacks, two gigantic sea stacks lying just off the coast there. And then another two miles inland again took me to a place called Puffin Croft, a BnB and Petting Farm, made famous to my mind by a really enjoyable episode of Ben Fogle’s “Make a New Life in the Country”, in which London nanny Cara leaves the big city behind to buy and run her own smallholding in the countryside around John O’Groats. I enjoyed wandering around the Petting Farm, seeing all the animals that featured in the episode, and also taking a peak into the attached Farm Shop with honesty box. I was hoping to be able to meet with Cara, but unfortunately she wasn’t around during my visit. Ah well, I was happy to have visited the place, famous in my eyes.
From here, I walked about half-a-mile again back to John O’Groats, and waited for my 4.50pm bus to take me back to Thurso again. I had enjoyed a wonderful day in and around the most northeasterly part of my country. Tomorrow I head to its most northerly point, nearby Dunnet Head.
Thursday was
Helmsdale
Train from Inverness to Thurso my final day at the top of Britain, and my final day in the caravan park. I have really enjoyed staying in a caravan, there’s been paradoxically so much space in such a compact area. I have not enjoyed staying in a caravan park however, and will think twice about this before I book one again. It has been an experience. The walls of the caravan are as thick as a sheet of metal, and there is just activity all around you – there are other static caravans from which you can hear your neighbours, there are a host of campervans, and lots of cars with tents. There always seems to be something going on here, people walking around, and it attracts the loud family types with children. I am looking forward to hopefully a bit more peace and quiet when I move on. Still, it was an experience, if only to let me know that I wouldn’t want to stay in a caravan park again.
But I did have another very enjoyable day on the Thursday. I caught a later bus, with more of a lie-in, to a nearby hamlet called Brough – pronounced “Brocchhh” according to a
Northern Scotland
Train from Inverness to Thurso Scottish lady on the bus, although the bus driver, who was English, said it was “Brow”, I thought it was “Broar”. I’m going to go with the Scots lady’s pronunciation. From here, it was another three-mile walk up a long, sometimes winding, single track road to a place called Dunnet Head. Whilst John O’Groats is the most northeasterly tip of Britain, and the furthest you can travel from Land’s End, Dunnet Head is actually geographically the most northern tip. Thus, I had to do it as well! The walk up there was exhilarating, through wild and open moorland, filled with heather and wild flowers, and lots of little lochs all around. It was also a bit popular with other tourists, those with wheels, so every few minutes I had to step off the road to let one pass – the cars were easy, the motorbikes even easier as you didn’t even need to move, but the campervans that came past were a bit trickier. And my goodness, everyone and their dog seems to have a campervan up here! I felt quietly satisfied with myself making it to the top, all on foot.
At the top there is a lighthouse,
Northern Scotland
Train from Inverness to Thurso and a sign which says “Dunnet Head, Most Northerly Point of Mainland Britain, Welcome”, which I had my photo taken next to. There is also a viewpoint with an awesome 360 degree vista, out across the Pentland Firth to the north and over to Orkney, where you can even just about make out the famous Orkney sea stack, the “Old Man of Hoy”. The view also extends towards the south, back to the far distant hamlet of Brough (Brocchhh), over the wild heathland and lochs along the way. You could also see over to John O’Groats, around 12 miles to the east. The wind had picked up quite a bit by then, adding to the exhilaration and other-worldly feel to the place.
At the top there is also an RSPB centre, called Dunnet Head, which offers a fair-to-middling viewpoint over the cliffs below. I did what a few other people were doing however, and took to walking further out along the edge of the sea cliffs, to get a much better view of the bird action below. Gosh it was worth it, there were some amazing views 90 metres to the crashing waves below. I also saw lots and
Northern Scotland
Train from Inverness to Thurso lots of kittiwakes, and a few puffins and cormorants flying. They were flying too quickly to be able to take photos of them though, but it was enough to simply watch them. I did see a very sad occurrence though, although I guess it is nature. There are birds called skuas, who prey on the young of the kittiwakes, and also rob them of their catches if they’re returning to their nests with them. All of a sudden there was a commotion in the cliffs, the kittiwakes were flying around frantically. Then I noticed there were two great skuas being chased away from them by a kittiwake. All three landed in the water and flapped around frenetically. Then I noticed the skuas had a kittiwake chick and were killing and eating it, while all the parent kittiwake could do was watch. It was really really sad to see, but I guess a part of nature. In fact, if I’m honest, it was quite something to see, and probably quite rare. But it was still sad.
After a while longer admiring the action and the views, I headed back down again, back the three-mile road I came along, and back
Northern Scotland
Train from Inverness to Thurso to Brough. Again, I enjoyed the walk very much, particularly as the wind had picked up greatly by this point, and it felt refreshing. Back in Brough, I had a picnic lunch on a conveniently located bench, before heading further along the road to a village called Dunnet, to wait for the bus back to Thurso again. While the morning bus dropped me in Brough, I had to take the return bus at a bus stop in Dunnet, a mile-and-a-half further along the road again, past lovely St John’s Loch – there are so many lochs up here! All in all, I think I did about eight miles walking today, which was a lot, and I’m surprised that I’m not awfully tired for it – I must be getting used to the walking!
I was aiming for a 4.05pm bus back to Thurso, and got to the bus stop for 3.45pm. Unfortunately, the bus never showed up, so I ended up taking the 5.10pm bus back, after a rather long wait at the village bus stop. Still, the weather was perfect – it was sunny, for the first time in about a week, and the fresh wind kept it
from being too hot – wonderful! The 5.10pm bus did come on time, and I made it back to my caravan for some rest and relaxation, after a really wonderful time here on Britain’s northernmost tip. I have taken more photos here than in any other part of my journey in Scotland so far, which just shows how awesome and spectacular the views, landscapes and wildlife are around here.
Tomorrow I get the four-hour train again back down south to Inverness, where I’ll be staying for two nights, and then on to Fort Augustus, on the southern end of Loch Ness, for another two nights. I plan to write up my next one from Fort Augustus, in a few days’ time.
In the meantime, thank you again for reading, and all the best for now 😊
Alex
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
The joys and beauty of the North
The Orkney's are still on my bucket list. This trip speaks to me and I hung on each word. Your timing continues to be good and you've missed the crowds. The Stroma tour will be on my list.... you've seen amazing wildlife. The circle of life is not easy to watch and skuas are tough birds.