Day 673: Tippity toppity

29/05/2023

Lachlan was in a cheerful mood when he woke and pulled back the blinds this morning. He managed to find another mammal with a similar sleep pattern. It was breakfast time for Lachlan and his pals. Sporting his blue sheep jumper he was accepted into the herd.

Darryl took to the sky for some sheep counting and a nearby castle reconnaissance mission.

After a good sleep in our other blue sheep appeared, our other rather-loud-in-the-morning blue sheep. Which scared all of the sheep away.

The kids had a good hit of tennis as the clouds cleared and we tidied up. We were sad we were leaving our glamping pods, they were fantastic.

We then backtracked to John o’ Groats where we put on all the layers we had. It had been 265 days but Liam had finally completed the UK, Land’s End to John o’ Groats.

John o’ Groats is a village 2.5 mi (4 km) northeast of Canisbay, Caithness, in the far north of Scotland. John o’ Groats lies on Great Britain’s northeastern tip, and is popular with tourists as one end of the longest distance between two inhabited points on the British mainland, with Land’s End in Cornwall lying 876 mi (1,410 km) southwest, but it is not the northernmost point of mainland Great Britain, which is the nearby Dunnet Head. John o’ Groats is 690 mi (1,110 km) from London, 280 mi (450 km) from Edinburgh, 6 mi (10 km) from the Orkney Isles, and 2,200 mi (3,500 km) from the North Pole. It is 4+1⁄4 mi (6.8 km) from the uninhabited Island of Stroma. The settlement takes its name from Jan de Groot,[2] a 15th-century Dutchman who once plied a ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney, which had recently been acquired from Norway by King James IV.

We grabbed some coffees and then the kids climbed whatever they could while Nali cleared out the tourist shop of Sinclair Clan merch.

We were not quite at the tippity toppity so ventured out to the underwhelming Duncansby Head Lighthouse. We were not actually interested in the lighthouse, we were on a quest to find the holy puffin.

With a fierce point, Eloise officially kicked off the holy puffin quest.

We had to be careful with Lachlan near the cliff edges. Lachlan was all rugged up and in the hood, happy with a juice.

As we approach Geo of Sclaites we were so excited, we could see puffins nesting on the… Wait a second… Just seagulls, damn!

Hang on, down the bottom… Oh no, just another dud bird, another puffin false alarm.

As we were still in Caithness, Nali’s hometown, Nali was interested in checking out the Duncansby Stacks.

Sadly the puffin count was still a big fat naught.

A Scottish Bear then appeared out of nowhere and tried to befriend Eloise, Eloise was not having any of that which meant it was time to move on.

We noticed it was almost midday by the time we were done with being blown around by the wind and worryingly we had made negative progress on our driving route. We made it back past the glamping pods, only slightly but alas we were heading in the right direction when Nali found her second castle, Castle Mey, another Sinclair-built castle.

Unfortunately, Castle Mey was not open on a Monday. However, Nali had brought her keys as we made our way through the gates.

The Castle of Mey (also known for a time as Barrogill Castle) is located in Caithness, on the north coast of Scotland, about 6 miles (10 km) west of John o’ Groats. In fine weather there are views from the castle north to the Orkney Islands… “The castle was probably built between 1566 and 1572 by George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness [and] includes a dominating tower with a series of tall ranges to the side and rear creating a three-sided courtyard open to the north and the sea.”

It was a brilliant lunch at Olive in Thurso. Where Lachlan enjoyed his first NC500 lunch, after napping through the previous two. He was certainly more lively today.

We flew past Dounreay Nuclear Power Station before pulling up on the side of the road next to Mackay Country Landmark. We had a wild tip-off that holy puffins may be in the area. A Sinclair truck zoomed past, this must be good luck.

Determined, Liam sprinted off, we were a reasonable distance from the cliffs. It turned out to be a much longer run than he had bargained for.

There was nice scenery, however, the elusive holy puffins were nowhere to be seen. This was proving trickier than we had hoped. Back to the drawing board. At risk of this becoming another very long day it was pedal to the metal and an unbelievably speccy drive.

There was a quick stop at the John Lennon Memorial Garden which is a minute of our lives we will never get back, supposedly he loved the Scottish Highlands and specifically Durness. Tonight we were staying at the Wild Orchid Guest House.

We had made it across the tippity toppity. Just in time for dinner in the conservatory microwave room.