[Photos] UK 24 - Wick and John O' Groats
Jun. 14th, 2019 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonvoiceWe had no plans to go to either Wick or John O'Groats, but one of the biggest issues with check ins throughout the UK, and especially with Airbnb, is that check outs were often early, and check ins were usually VERY LATE (around 3-4pm). This often meant that even with a solid 4 hours of driving, we'd still have 2 hours to kill until check in.
As a result, driving from Inverness to Thurso was going to leave us with far too much time to kill, so we decided to make a day of it and do a trip to Wick and John O'Groats (this has the honour of being the most northerly point on the isle that is Britain). The roads were generally not very well maintained, narrow, and there were some alarming hairpin turns that dropped off nicely into an ocean that had no horizon line because of the haar. (Which was in abundance in many places we visited in the Highlands). Glen's least favourite driving was along here, and we had to take some of it back again, lol.
Wick was honestly rough, and had very obviously come upon hard times. But the people were very charming and generous (you could take some notes, Aberdeen, honestly). John O'Groats was small and wonderful. Blustery, wild, with many nesting seabirds, including guillemots and kittiwakes.
Duncansby Stacks at Duncansby Head
Okay and also ONE shot of Helmsdale as we drove through it, because I loved the gorse covered hill.
Hello, Wick.
A typical closed storefront in central Wick, of which there were far more closed stores than open ones.
One of the few cafes doing well was this small place called Morag's. Because we were killing time, we decided to have lunch here. The menu was like, surprisingly HUGE. The kind of thing John Ramsay would cry if he saw. No menu is supposed to have like 200 things on it, even if five of the items might be 'beef roll' 'beef roll with onion' 'beef roll with onion and cheese' 'beef roll with egg' 'beef roll with chips' etc.
Morag's only had two spare tables when we went in. The place was busy, loud, and filled with the accents common to the region. You could tell it was a common haunt for locals, and the front counter was really busy. We discovered as we paid, that the cafe is in fact owned by Morag and run by her and her daughters, who swore and laughed and threatened each other with physical violence the entire time we were there. Tbh, go there, it's great.
(In the photo you can also see Gwyn and Silvia, she's in the blue jacket).
A nightclub that has also seen better days
Walking into central Wick (there isn't much of it).
More northerly than John O'Groats, we drove to Duncansby Head.
Duncansby Lighthouse, built in 1924 and now fully automated.
Looking back from Duncansby Head
What I cannot fully describe to you is the clattering clamour of thousands of nesting seabirds.
All nesting on these dropoff points
Duncansby Stacks. I wanted to get closer, but I was just too ill. Glen told me not to walk this far, but I was desperate to at least glimpse them for myself.
Driving to Thurso, which will be next!
As a result, driving from Inverness to Thurso was going to leave us with far too much time to kill, so we decided to make a day of it and do a trip to Wick and John O'Groats (this has the honour of being the most northerly point on the isle that is Britain). The roads were generally not very well maintained, narrow, and there were some alarming hairpin turns that dropped off nicely into an ocean that had no horizon line because of the haar. (Which was in abundance in many places we visited in the Highlands). Glen's least favourite driving was along here, and we had to take some of it back again, lol.
Wick was honestly rough, and had very obviously come upon hard times. But the people were very charming and generous (you could take some notes, Aberdeen, honestly). John O'Groats was small and wonderful. Blustery, wild, with many nesting seabirds, including guillemots and kittiwakes.
Duncansby Stacks at Duncansby Head
Okay and also ONE shot of Helmsdale as we drove through it, because I loved the gorse covered hill.
Hello, Wick.
A typical closed storefront in central Wick, of which there were far more closed stores than open ones.
One of the few cafes doing well was this small place called Morag's. Because we were killing time, we decided to have lunch here. The menu was like, surprisingly HUGE. The kind of thing John Ramsay would cry if he saw. No menu is supposed to have like 200 things on it, even if five of the items might be 'beef roll' 'beef roll with onion' 'beef roll with onion and cheese' 'beef roll with egg' 'beef roll with chips' etc.
Morag's only had two spare tables when we went in. The place was busy, loud, and filled with the accents common to the region. You could tell it was a common haunt for locals, and the front counter was really busy. We discovered as we paid, that the cafe is in fact owned by Morag and run by her and her daughters, who swore and laughed and threatened each other with physical violence the entire time we were there. Tbh, go there, it's great.
(In the photo you can also see Gwyn and Silvia, she's in the blue jacket).
A nightclub that has also seen better days
Walking into central Wick (there isn't much of it).
More northerly than John O'Groats, we drove to Duncansby Head.
Duncansby Lighthouse, built in 1924 and now fully automated.
Looking back from Duncansby Head
What I cannot fully describe to you is the clattering clamour of thousands of nesting seabirds.
All nesting on these dropoff points
Duncansby Stacks. I wanted to get closer, but I was just too ill. Glen told me not to walk this far, but I was desperate to at least glimpse them for myself.
Driving to Thurso, which will be next!
no subject
Date: 2019-06-14 12:06 pm (UTC)If Bojo is the answer, it must have been a bloody silly question!
no subject
Date: 2019-06-16 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-14 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-16 02:20 pm (UTC)I mean all of Scotland is great for different reasons, but yeah there's nothing quite like being in John O Groats (which honestly isn't that far from Inverness), or going up to Orkney. Plus if you're that far North, it's also pretty easy to do the whiskey distillery tourism road from Aviemore to Aberdeen. There's also a LOT of very sort of rugged gloomy seaside castles. The roads are harsh though, and the weather can be rougher.