The Journey To John O’Groats

Autumn Adventure - Day11 (NC500 - Day 3)

Although it rained most of the day yesterday, the wind had died down so when I arrived at my campsite last night in Brora, I confidently put the roof up on my Campervan, as I’ve always done, even in the rain. So I was surprised to wake up this morning and find that half of my bed was wet! The material on the inside of my pop-up roof on the passenger side was all wet and was dripping onto my bed! This is the first time I’ve EVER experienced it leaking in 6 years. To say I was discouraged is an understatement. I dried it out as best I could which took up some of my morning. I was finally ready to leave just before noon, and there was a break in the rain, so I walked down to the beach, crossing a golf course on my way (See first Extra photo). The wind was picking up again and it had rained all morning, so I couldn’t believe that I saw a number of golfers out there playing! Either the locals are hardy, or these were tourists who had paid a lot of money to golf in Scotland and nothing was going to deter them!  

The beach was beautiful. I would have loved to have walked, but I needed to get away. At least I was still smiling!!

I drove north and decided to stop in the fishing village of Helmsdale. I walked around the harbour for a few minutes but was getting wet and blown away, so I hurried to the Timespan museum which I wanted to visit. I had lunch in their cafe first, and then went to look at the exhibits.

The museum told the sad story of the ‘Clearances’, which happened all over the Highlands in the 18th and 19th centuries. The tenant farmers were forcefully and often brutally cleared off their farms by the landowners who decided to switch to the more profitable sheep farming and other forms of larger scale agriculture. The tenant farmers were evicted from their homes, their communities and from the only way of life they knew, and were forced into the fishing and mining industries. Some were forced to emigrate. Fishing villages such as Helmsley are the result of those tenants who were forced to the coast to survive as fishermen.  

I continued to drive north up the east coast. There were some other things I’d hoped to see on the way, but all needed good weather, so they’ll have to wait for next time. I stopped in Wick to fill up with petrol and buy a bit of food, and ended up in John O’Groats by dusk, where I checked in to the campsite right on the top cliff. Before it got dark I quickly walked around the small village to get some pictures (see 2nd Extra photo).

John O’Groats is the northern end of the longest distance between two inhabited points on the British mainland. It is 876 miles (1410 km) from Land’s End in Cornwall, the southern end of this longest distance. The 876 mile route is popular with cyclists, motorcyclists, drivers, and even walkers. It’s visited by many tourists from all over the world, but the village is really quite small and very spread out. The white building with the octagon shaped tower is an historic hotel that fell into disrepair but was recently redeveloped with a series of brightly coloured attached buildings added to the older building.

I love street art, so I enjoyed all of the murals that were in this area. The signpost is not THE famous signpost - that might be in tomorrow’s blip! The steel beams and boulders on front of the hotel is an art/installation called ’Nomadic Boulders’.

Once it was dark, the hotel was beautifully lit up with gradually shifting colours. See the 3rd extra photo.


I’m very, VERY late posting my blips from my Scotland trip!!  I’m trying to catch up. Scroll back if you want to!