Surf’s Up! A Weekend of Northern Exposure
It must be just a little deflating to walk/cycle/hop/whatever the 876 miles from Lands End and find out when you get to John O’Groats that it’s not, after all, the most northerly place in Britain. Certainly looks it, as you stare across the Pentland Firth to the Orkney Islands, which aren’t now quite so far away as they’ve been all your life. But the title goes to Dunnet Head, a spectacular promontory a few miles westward. It’s almost a better name too.
As in “I done it!”
OK. WE’RE HERE.
Caithness is as far as you can go on mainland Britain, it’s mostly flat heath or fields, so the wind hurtling in from the sea can be a tad bracing at times. Which is no bad thing. The late Queen Mother loved it so much her “favourite” castle is here at Mey (how many castles do you actually have to own to have a favourite?)
John O’Groats is where everyone heads for, and you should too, if only to send a postcard with a Scottish stamp franked accordingly and also to see the little craft and souvenir shops, which might be open, or might not, depending on the season (Easter to September). Lots of places close down outside the season but that’s no bad thing either – the place is even quieter, (although nothing ever gets busy up here) and since the overpowering grandeur of the landscape has been awaiting your arrival for several million years, it’s hardly going to shut when it’s winter.
How to get here?
Just head north. To Wick, the best means is a flight with Loganair from Edinburgh. The little twin prop planes may bounce around a bit but it’s an unusually picturesque hour above Scotland’s mountains and northern coastlines. Connections from the south are easy. From October 2008 Loganair’s codeshare partner changed from BA to Flybe but that doesn’t really affect who you travel to Scotland with. Unless you want to leave London at breakfast and have lunch in Wick.
Getting around is another matter.
There’s no bus at Wick Airport but a taxi into town’s only £3.50 and the bus up to Thurso is only £2.90 for a fresh half hour through the wide open farmland and crofts.
Integrated public transport timetables show clearly where the train, buses and postbuses go (you’re effectively hitching a lift with the postie!) but also that they mostly run Monday to Friday. Some routes operate on Saturdays but virtually nothing moves on Sundays.
Local Car Hire companies are not expensive.
STAY WHERE?
In Thurso, where at first glance one place looks very much like another, Stan Egan and his family at the Station Hotel will give you a cheery welcome and a nice clean room from probably £70 for a double, depending on the time of year. The hotel’s been there since the railway arrived in 1906 and has the photos to prove it. In those days, travel was a real adventure; but getting here today can still be pretty invigorating.
Everything is just as you would expect. Nice clean rooms, clean bathrooms and a warm, inviting hotel bar with good beers, good wines and an excellent array of malt whiskies. They have a second hotel around the corner, the St Clair, open during the summer. They’ve spruced The Station up a bit since 1906 too – with Wi-Fi, en-suite bathrooms, multi channel TV, a small library, and young enthusiastic staff. They’re even in Michelin 2008. The food’s good, modern and hearty. Everything from three course a la carte to substantial home made burgers. Chat’s good at the bar too, quiet rather than raucous.
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL, 1,2,3…
(1) Wick
Despite its greyness, you may want to linger in Wick – as the Vikings did when they named it “Vik” meaning small bay – so the first port of call should be the Wick Heritage Museum in Bank Row, restored fishermen’s homes displaying a varied collection from a Kippering Kiln to a lighthouse to a harbour. Above that, an excellent public library, the Carnegie, which incorporates a gallery, fine local reference books, free internet and a charming staff.
Opposite is one of the best places for lunch – Bistro 1 – part of Mackays Hotel which is recommended, along with Ackergill Tower, for overnight stays.
Wick is pretty compact, but the countryside around it is worth exploring. The local tourist board has all the information, their office is on a first floor, entry via a gent’s outfitter.
(2) Thurso
Thurso’s grey too. The streets are clean (all that wind!) and everyone is pleasant and chatty. Along the River Thurso you’ll find old St Peter’s Kirk, the village church from 1220 to 1832 (that’s about lunchtime to teatime...ha ha) and then the harbour where, of all things, you’ll find the community of surfer dudes, chasing the big one. Thurso is a mecca for surfing and the beat-up VW campervans are here, even in winter. In surfing terms, the waves that come crashing in all along this northern coast are world class, virtually all year round.
The view across the bay is to Scrabster, a busy fishing and ferry port which receives the servicing vessels from the North Sea oil industry too. There’s always something of interest going on.
Thurso’s best shop – Tall Tales - is a miniscule second-hand bookstore, which looks as if it might just survive another day or two, largely overshadowed by Jim Bews, a store that starts as a newsagent (open on a Sunday!) but meanders through the building selling books and all manner of things until it becomes an internet café upstairs.
(3) John O’ Groats
20 miles east from Thurso, Dutchman Jan de Groot’s little ferry port may be mecca for the long distance charity walker, but it’s little more than a couple of shops, a caff and a closed hotel. The famous signpost (“Land’s End 876 miles”) is only available by request from the local photographer, whose family apparently invented the whole idea 60 years ago. A couple of miles away is the aforementioned Castle of Mey, open in summer, which sits in beautiful grounds rolling down to the sea, just along from the Orkney car ferry out of Gills Bay, three times a day throughout the year.
But it’s the surrounding landscape that’s spectacular, with headlands looking to the islands which even on a blue sky day can still whip up a storm. That real northern tip, Dunnet Head, is breathtaking in its beauty. There are no shops, just a lighthouse overlooking the shipping channel and a foghorn (the third, the other two blew away) which for those who don’t have to work there, or negotiate a perilous sea passage, is a truly stupendous sight. The single track roads there form “The Dunnet Bay Tour” which will lead you to hidden gems like Mary Anne’s Cottage, a perfectly preserved croft where three generations of the Calder family lived for well over 100 years, overlooking the sweeping curve of Dunnet Beach, another surfer’s paradise. There’s no tweeness here, but it sure is pretty.
LET’S DO LUNCH
Cheap
There are three fish and chip shops in Thurso and they’re all good. Robin’s (which used to be a travelling van) serves up local specialities such as patties, red pudding or poloney and chips and Sandra’s over the road (part of the backpacker’s hostel) are both busy at peak times. A few yards away is the equally good Maggie Anne’s, recently moved from nearby Halkirk, which closes at 8 but happily served me, plus a new queue of hungry customers at 7.59pm with fresh fish and new chips to order. Sit in too.
Not quite so cheap
Le Bistro is a comfortable little place that will do a bowl of Cullen Skink (Scottish soup made with smoked haddock, potato and onion in a creamy broth – yummy) with a glass of wine for £7. Filling, tasty, and the staff are nice too.
Not cheap but worthwhile
There’s a more than adequate Indian restaurant in the town centre, The Indian Palace in Princes Street which is open seven days a week and offers a huge menu of staples plus 27 chef’s specials including Kurse Lamb which requires 24 hours notice. A happy, smiling, attentive staff serve locals, boat crews, and anyone who walks through their door, lunchtimes and evenings. Possibly Britain’s most northerly curry shop.
WHAT’S YOURS?
Wet your whistle with an Orkney Beer, brewed in the islands and winning awards throughout the real ale world. The range has unusual names – Bitter and Twisted, Shiehallion, Innis and Gunn, and the latest, Skull Splitter, has provoked controversy – according to its defenders it’s a Viking name, and not something to incite violence. Just have one to be on the safe side though.
DINNER IS SERVED
The best place around is the Captain’s Galley which is out at Scrabster, hidden beside the commercial fishing port, in the middle of what can only be described as ‘industry’. Owner Jim Cowie’s fishy haven is an award winning posh eatery which serves up sustainable fish landed on his doorstep and cooked to perfection. The sample tasting menu has many courses for under £39 but he’s full all the time, because he’s terrific, so call ahead and book.
A few miles further west is the Forss House Hotel, an attractive lodge in its own grounds, complete with waterfall and a range of whiskies in the bar to make your head spin. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an array of single malts. Charming staff and excellent, locally sourced food.
DRIVE BY
For an hour or so…
Just out of town, heading west, may not exactly be the nature trail you had in mind. At the Forss Wind Farm, six HUGE windmills (72 metres high) generate enough electricity to supply 3000 houses in the area. Windmills are at the centre of impassioned discussion right now throughout the Highlands. Coincidentally, as you stand beneath the giant turbines you look down on Dounreay, the decommissioned Atomic Power Station, another controversial installation in the area. It’s enough to start a debate…
To recompense for all this modernity, seek out nearby Cnoc Freiceadan, one of hundreds of prehistoric sites that litter the Caithness landscape
For the day…
The road along the top of Britain will eventually lead you to Cape Wrath, a fantastic drive through an increasingly empty landscape (and past more world class surfers’ beaches!) as Caithness gives way to Sutherland, Europe’s least populated region. This is where you’ll find Bettyhill, a scattering of small houses which collectively make up a quiet town. The landscape’s as dramatic as it is bleak but at BettyHill it gets positively melodramatic.
The Strathnaver Trail has been created by a local teacher (pick up a leaflet locally, £2.50, from the excellent BettyHill Post Office) around the main road to Altnaharra. Over 20 locations (each with a small layby, plaque and directions) it explains in clear, concise language the area’s history, and very pointedly what happened two hundred years ago in the Highland Clearances, when people who farmed the land were forced out from communities, some of which predated Christianity, to make way for sheep. It explains, in a very moving way, why you’re standing in such silence. A extraordinary exposition in a breathtaking landscape. Not to be missed.
The route will take you to Tongue, a small village with two hotels. The Tongue Hotel has been spruced up and on Sundays, when a large closed notice hangs heavy over most of the region, a jazz band plays at lunch which, at £9.95 for local smoked salmon and highland sirloin with all the trimmings, is splendid stuff and well ‘worth the journey’ – coincidentally the restaurant’s very motto. It’s true.
Overnight…
The road continues to Durness township where you can stay in Mackays restaurant with rooms and visit Smoo Cave. It’s the last point of civilisation before the ferry crossing (and 18 km in a minibus) to the wild North West headland that is Cape Wrath.
It’s also where John Lennon came on holiday as a child.
Further reading
VisitScotland’s new “locals guide” and “Scotland the Best” by Peter Irvine. Nobody should ever visit Scotland without a copy.
Useful links
Buy Scotland the Best from Amazon.co.uk
Flybe.com (Loganair partner)
Added 2008/10/20 @ 15:37:38
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