Caithness is the county that covers the far north east of Scotland. You might think it’s so far away that there won’t be much to do and see there apart from getting your picture taken at the John O’Groats sign, but you’d be wrong. You could really dedicate an entire holiday just to exploring Caithness and still not see everything. Even though I’ve travelled round it several times I still have plenty of reasons to go back and I know I won’t run out of things to do any time soon.
Here are some highlights to help you plan your own trip to beautiful, fascinating Caithness:
John O’Groats
This is where most people think of when they think of Caithness. Except they probably don’t think of Caithness at all and just think about John O’Groats as being that place at the top of Scotland, the furthest north point in mainland Britain.
Except it’s not. It’s not the place furthest north in mainland Britain that is. That honour goes to Dunnet Head (be honest now, have you heard of it?) John O’Groats is the point people aim for when they walk or cycle the LEJOG (Land’s End to John O’Groats) which, at around 870 miles, is supposed to be the greatest distance you can travel between two points in mainland Britain.
Except it’s not. A slightly greater distance would be to go from Land’s End to Duncansby Head. So why do people finish their epic journeys at John O’Groats? I really don’t know, unless it’s because LEJOG has got more of a ring to it than LEDH.
But John O’Groats is famous and lots of people do go there. You can go there so you can leave straight away on the foot passenger ferry to Orkney or you can go there to have your picture taken at the famous sign. The sign is so famous that I’ve heard a rumour there’s now two of them: one free and one not. I think with the pay one you get to choose which locations are on the sign.
Other than that, there’s not that much to do at John O’Groats unless you like tourist traps. In which case you’re sure to love it.
Dunnet Head
Situated nearly 2½ miles further north than John o’Groats, this is the real most northerly point in mainland Britain and it really is worth visiting on a nice day to go for a walk. The scenery is stunning with high cliffs and views across to Orkney just a few miles away. If you get a clear day you’ll be able to see the Duncansby Stacks to the east and all the way to Cape Wrath in the west. This uninterrupted view made for a great lookout point during the Second World War. Thousands of service men were stationed here and a radar station built. The remains of some of the wartime buildings can still be seen today.
Duncansby Head
If you were to draw a line between the two furthest points in mainland Britain, the top of your line would be at Duncansby Head. This is another amazing place to go for a walk. The cliffs and geological formations are phenomenal and there are stunning sea stacks just off the coast. In the 1950s it was proposed to use the area for testing nuclear weapons. Thankfully, due to the amount of rain, it was considered too wet for the delicate electronic equipment and the proposal was shelved.
Castle of Mey
The Castle of Mey was the Queen Mother’s Scottish home. She bought it not long after her husband died and it was the only home she actually owned. It belongs to Prince Charles now and he spends some time in it each year. Because it’s still used and lived in it really does feel like a home when you walk round it.
The guides are full of information and will tell you lots of titbits about the Queen Mum and Charles. Did you know the Queen Mum’s favourite daily tipple was gin and dubonnet? I didn’t even know what dubonnet was! But I do now and yes I’ve tried it. Though I have to say I prefer my gin with a decent tonic.
This castle is so lovely I’ve been to it twice already and I’m sure I’ll visit it again.
Read my post on the Castle of Mey here.
Thurso and the Caithness Horizons Museum
Thurso is the largest town on the north coast of Scotland and so this is the place to come for shops, cafes and pubs. It’s close to Scrabster where the ferries from Stromness in Orkney dock. The best part about Thurso though has to be the museum. The Caithness Horizons Museum and Art Gallery is well worth a couple of hours of your time. The first thing you see as you enter is a couple of standing stones. The museum covers all aspects of life through the ages in Caithness. It has artefacts from neolithic and pictish times and the control room from the now defunct local nuclear power station at nearby Dounreay.
Read my post on Thurso and the Caithness Horizons Museum here.
NB The museum was recently closed due to lack of funding, but talks are under way to secure new funding and hopefully it will be open again soon.
Wick and the Heritage Centre
Wick is the main town on the east coast of Caithness. The town centre where all the shops and takeaways are looks quite run down, but once you get away from this there are some lovely streets. I did a self-guided heritage walk and really enjoyed it.
The Heritage Centre in Wick really surprised me. I expected it to be quite small with a bit of local information. It’s not. It has everything in there. I mean EVERYTHING. I doubt you could think of much that isn’t in there (except the control room for a nuclear power station. They haven’t got one of those). Best bit for me was all the large prints of black and white photos taken decades ago. They were such fabulous quality and really showed what life must have been like.
Read my post on Wick and the Heritage Centre here.
Whaligoe steps
I don’t think many people had heard of the Whaligoe Steps until the creation of the NC500, a 50o mile circular road trip route around the north of Scotland. Now they are one of the attractions on the route and even coach parties turn up to walk down (and back up) the 365 (or 300 or 330 depending on your source) steps. It’s a lovely little area and it’s staggering to imagine how the women used to climb the steps every day with big baskets of fish and then walk the eight miles to Wick.
Read my post on the Whaligoe Steps here.
Cairn of Get
This cairn can be found by taking the turnoff across from the one that leads to the Whaligoe Steps. There’s a small parking area by the small but pretty Loch Watenan and then about a 15 minute walk. The path is well marked and there are boards over the boggiest bits.
The cairn is a chambered burial site dating back to the bronze age. It would originally have been roofed over, but is now open to the elements. A passage leads to the inside and it’s easily accessible.
Nybster Broch
The car park is signposted off the main A99 road. From here you need to walk south along the coast. Before you spot the broch you’ll notice a large square monument called Mervyn Tower. It was built to commemorate Sir Francis Tress Barry, the man who excavated the broch in 1900.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the broch when I set off looking for it and know that some are quite hard to spot without a trained eye. Once I was at the tower I decided that my eye wasn’t trained enough and I wasn’t going to find the broch. Before leaving, I thought I’d walk right round the tower. Good job I did, because there was the broch hiding behind it.
It’s not the best broch I’ve seen (it’s hard to be really impressed when you’ve seen some of the fabulously preserved brochs in Shetland), but was still pretty impressive. It’s actually one the most important broch settlements in mainland Scotland. Archaeologists have found many buildings surrounding the broch which show there was a whole community who once lived here. It’s thought that it was inhabited for over a 1000 years.
Once I’d actually found the broch it was quite easy to explore. If you’ve not seen a broch before, or at least not seen a good one, then this one should definitely be on your list.
If you like you can continue walking south from here until you get to the ruins of Keiss Castle.
Caithness Broch Centre
The Caithness Broch Centre at Auckengill, just a few miles from Nybster along the A99 is housed in an old schoolhouse. It’s a small one-room museum with plenty of information on large display boards and a few artefacts. It’s nothing like the Wick Heritage Centre or the Horizons Museum in Thurso, but if you don’t know much about brochs then this should be a compulsory stop. Even if you do know quite a lot it’s still worth stopping here for a good introduction to the brochs in this area.
In case you’re reading this and wondering what a broch is – a broch (pronounced to rhyme with loch) is an iron age circular tower. They are found all over the north of Scotland, the North Isles and the Western Isles. They were built with double walls and had staircases running up between the walls and rooms or cells on each floor. No-one really knows what their purpose was.
Keiss Castle
Keiss Castle is the one you spot from the road and have to get close to. Towering on the edge of a cliff it looks like it should star in its own gothic movie.
The castle was built in the early eighteenth century by George Sinclair, the fifth Earl of Caithness. Just a few decades later it was abandoned and left to fall into ruins.
It’s not possible to go into the castle now as the remains are too unstable, but you can get close by walking along the coast from the Nybster Broch or doing as I did and parking by the harbour in Keiss and walking from there.
This whole area was heavily fortified during the Second World War and as you walk out to the castle you’ll spot the remains of pillboxes. There are also a couple of iron age brochs, but they’re in much worse condition that Nybster Broch.
Just inland from Keiss Castle is the new Keiss Castle, built in the mid-18th century. Although it has the name of a castle it’s a fairly boring looking building that is just a big house rather than a castle.
Freswick Bay and Castle
I had a bit of time spare whilst I waited for the Broch Centre to open and so as it was a lovely day decided a beach walk would be the perfect way to spend it.
Freswick Bay has a gorgeous sandy beach. I parked by the hamlet of Skirza and spent a pleasant hour strolling to the far end of the beach and Freswick Castle. The castle looks quite majestic from the distance, but up close looks more like a big house. It was built in the 1400s on the site of an earlier Norse castle and expanded a few times over the years. These days it’s a private home but can also be rented out by groups.
Castle Sinclair Girnigoe
Castle Sinclair Girnigoe is about 3 miles north of Wick. There’s a parking area at the bottom of a lane by the Noss Head Lighthouse and then a 5-10 minute walk out to the castle.
I visited in the evening as the sun was going down and it looked pretty spectacular silhouetted against the sky. It’s everything a castle should be. It straddles two stacks which are linked by a bridge. Another bridge links it to the land. Although ruined there’s still plenty to see and a lot of it is accessible.
The castle is actually two castles. Castle Girnigoe, built in the late 1400s, and Castle Sinclair, built in 1606. The castle was abandoned in 1680 and left to fall into ruins. In recent years the Clan Sinclair Trust has been working to save it. As well as restoration works they have put in bridges, made the path wheelchair friendly and provided information panels.
The Hill o’ Many Stanes
The Hill o’ Many Stanes is one of those places that at first sight leaves you underwhelmed. Then your eyes start to focus in on it and you say ‘wow’ under your breath. Then you focus a bit more and say ‘wow’ a bit louder. Then you realise exactly what you’re looking at and your ‘wow’ becomes a ‘WOW!!!’
The Hill o’ Many Stanes (stanes = stones) is a field of standing stones. They’re all rather short and stubby which is why they don’t look that remarkable at first glance. There are around 200 stones here and they were all placed deliberately and by hand about 4,000 years ago. They are lined up in at least 22 rows.
Huge arrangements of rows of stones like this are really rare and found in only a few places in Europe.
Once I realised what I was looking at I spent quite a bit time wandering among them and even made a video. Being the far north of Scotland I had the entire site to myself. You won’t get that experience at Stonehenge!
Lybster
I turned off the main road on a whim when I spotted a sign pointing to Lybster. The road I turned onto widened into something the size you might find in New York rather than the country lane I was expecting. It’s lined with houses and leads down to a lane (a narrow one this time) that winds down to the harbour.
It’s so pretty! There’s a visitor centre, but it had already closed for the day by the time I got there. I still managed to spend a good half hour just wandering round the harbour and taking loads of photos. This is somewhere that would be so easy to miss as you whiz past on the A99, but it really is worth turning in and having a look.
There’s plenty more to do in Caithness, but these are definite highlights and should be on everyone’s list. What do you think? Would you add anywhere else that someone exploring Caithness should visit? Share your thoughts and recommendations in the comments below.
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