Places > United Kingdom > Scotland > North > John O'Groats

John O'Groats

John O'Groats is a hovel. A hopeless and complete waste of space. It has been designed with the worst kind of tourist in mind, and will be likely to leave even them disappointed. It isn't the most northerly point in the UK - that is halfway back to Thurso. It isn't even the most north-easterly point in the UK - that's the lighthouse around 3 miles to the east. It is just the only place nearby with the cheek to call itself a settlement.

If, against all the best advice, you arrive in John O'Groats, you will be dropped off in a car park near the ferry terminal. To your left is an ugly characterless shopping village, home to shops selling rubbish like candles and knitwear. If you are an EU citizen you may wish to ponder the fact that European money was wasted in building this act of vandalism. If you are not an EU citizen, shame on you for visiting John O'Groats anyway. To your right is the ferry office and ramshackle caravan park. Straight ahead you will find a tea-room and shop which is quite unjustly proud to serve overpriced Costa coffee, as well as the same Scottish junk you can find in any other shop. Beyond that you will find a photographer who will take hackneyed shots of you next to a fake signpost, an appalling attempted museum, and a tourist information centre, which is essentially another shop with a few out-of-date timetables posted unhelpfully in the window.

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How to get there

John O'Groats has roughly hourly buses to Thurso, and a less regular service to Wick, both run by Rapsons. The Orkney passenger ferry also runs from here, and you can buy combined tickets to catch a coach from Inverness directly to here, and the ferry to Orkney and bus to Kirkwall on the other side. See the Far North page for full details on how to get to the area.

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Accommodation

Do not book in advance. In the unlikely event that you still want to stay there having seen the place, there is an expensive-looking hotel and the aforementioned caravan park. Following their policy of putting hostels in the middle of nowhere, The SYHA run a small hostel a few miles back up the road towards Thurso. As John O'Groats is more of a travesty and ferry terminal than a village, you will be hard-pressed to find any real facilities beyond the tiny petrol station/shop/post office half a mile back from the coast. Eating in your accomodation is certainly the order of the day.

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