UK camping roadtrip – day 6, John o’ Groats | alison richards

After driving so much yesterday because the terrible weather kept us mostly inside, today was so much nicer that we slowed down and stopped much more often to enjoy the drive. We left our wild camp at Helmsdale early, packing up all traces of us camping there, and drove north. The first stop of the day was quite unexpected - a roadside sign for a place called Badbea which caught our attention. We pulled over to have a look

Badbea is a former clearance village, the name given to a village built to house people that had been evicted from their land due to the need of sheep farmers for larger grazing areas for their animals. These people had to built their own houses out of the rocks that they found, and try to cultivate the land to grow veg and to farm animals.. In Babdea, the farmers all learned to fish in order to provide for their families It would have been a really tough existence, as the steep cliffs overlooked the North Sea, and the location would have been bitterly cold and windy. It was also really sloped, meaning that flattening enough ground to build a small house would have been a challenge. The last resident there left in 1911, and the little houses are now all in ruins.

Some of the only recognisable structures left were old stone walls. The houses were now just piles of stones.

We hopped back in the car and kept going. I made Josh stop at a church on the way, as the view of the cliffs nearby was pretty impressive. Only, I was indecisive about us stopping and we drove past it, then had to turn around and go back. Hopeless I know, but I think it was worth it.

The pattern on one of the gravestones in the cemetery. The church wasn’t that interesting but the graveyard was fascinating, though it was in a pretty terrible state, with stones all over the place.

We next stopped off at a place called Wick, as we followed signs for a castle. There wasn't much of a castle to see, but again, the cliffs were pretty dramatic. This place also had a outdoor pool called the Trinkie. This is one of only a few tidal swimming pools left in Scotland, after a run on creating pools in the 1900-1930's by councils who wanted to increase their summer vacationers. Most of them have now been filled in or left to break up but the Trinkie is still in use today. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't fancy swimming in it. The sea around the UK barely gets above 14 degrees! That's too cold for me!

The only indication that the tidal pool is actually there.

We went on a bit of a random detour from Wick and ended up driving along roads through a strange suburban area to a place called Staxigoe. I don't even know why we went down there.... But anyway, this is the bay at Staxigoe

The next place we visited was a planned as it was somewhere that was on our map. We parked and walked over to the ruins of Castle Sinclair Girnigoe. This is actually the ruins of two castles, one from the 15th century (Girnigoe) and the other from the 17th century (Sinclair), as the later castle was built upon the foundations of the earlier castle. It was in a lovely spot, I'll give it that, but would have been cold and draughty throughout most of the the year!

The view from a tiny room inside the castle, possibly the bathroom. Would have been a chilly loo!

Down at the little bay accessible from the castle.

The lighthouse off in the other direction

It was past noon when we left the castle so time to find some lunch! We stopped off at a Tesco nearby and bought some sandwiches, then sought out a place to go eat them. Josh, as usual, managed to find a good lunch spot, and we sat in the car, eating out food right by a beach. I even made myself a cup of tea with hot water from the thermos! What luxury! We did get out and have a walk along the beach of course! It was lovely, cold though, but it also had these weird concrete blocks, which turned out to be anti-tank blocks from World War II! I've never really noticed any World War II stuff in the UK before, but Josh did because he was interested in it, and from there on, I noticed it a lot more. I'd never realised how much the UK had prepared to be invaded!

I admit it, I climbed up on one, then got a little stuck and had to be helped down…

The other side of the bay, towards Keiss

We weren't far away from John o' Groats, which is the northernmost town in mainland UK. From there, the only towns more north that are part of the UK are the Northern Isles that consist of the Orkney and Shetland archipelagos.

Considering we were still on the North Coast 500 in peak season, it was fairly quiet on the roads around John o' Groats, and I once again made Josh pull over to take a couple of photos.

It was definitely pretty, but would be a lonely life out there I imagine.

The next stop was the highlight of the day and the trip so far. We drove out to Duncansby Lighthouse and walked along the cliff path to the sea stacks nearby. Also nearby, the colonies of thousands of sea birds, and you could smell and hear them before you saw them. There were so many!

It had turned out to be a really lovely day, and the walk along the cliff edges was so nice. I kept going, so I was right up close to the stacks, but I think Josh had had enough and went back to the car.

All the birds! Unfortunately that’s all the zoom I had!

We finished off our day of sight-seeing after 5pm, then drove to John o' Groats Caravan and Camping Site to see about a campsite for the night. There was space available and so we pitched our tent overlooking the Orkney Islands and settled in for the night. I say night, but it didn't really get dark that night, we were so north!