23rd September 2021 – 58 miles travelled
The plan for today had been to visit Castle Mey but all the slots for the house had already been sold, wish I had realised and could have booked one earlier in the week or even before we left home, maybe next time.
Instead we decided to head further up the road to Thurso, we have visited here before but hadn’t planned to go on this trip, however we had already fitted in everything else planned for our week on the east coast so this is an unplanned bonus.
Decided to try and see Thurso castle this time, previous visit we saw from the pier but didn’t get up close. Not easy or obvious way to get there, we parked out of the way on the end of a farm marked as private so not to block access to the house or outbuildings, then walked passed the house down a narrow and very very overgrown track and we were there.
There was a great view out to sea and the town of Thurso from the castle and lots of big breaking waves.
There was been a fortress in Thurso since the 12th century, the current Thurso castle was built in 1872 and visited by Ulysses S Grant in 1877 as part of his world tour, in 1952 a lot of the castle was demolished for safety reason.
We headed back to the car and drove round to Thurso pier. It was very cold wind and Gavin, probably wisely, decided to stay in the car but I ventured down to the end of the pier. The waves were huge and the pier cobbles were wet and slippery. I got wet from one particular large wave which also splashed the camera.
I headed back to the car to warm up and spent some time drying off and trying best I could to polish up the camera lens – well the polarizing filter that was on the lens, might need to invest in a professional clean of the camera when we get home.
By now we were more than ready to warm up and get some lunch, we remembered a nice bakery that had some inside seating, Johnson’s, from a previous visit, we found the car park from last time quite easily and grabbed some lunch, warmed sausage roll for me and some cake to take back to the cottage for later (I ended up eating the meringue while waiting for Gavin to finish his lunch !)
After lunch we had a nosey at the shops, Gavin picked up some local jams, and I got a book to read in a charity shop. We came across an old fashioned ice cream parlour, and well it’s never too cold for ice cream right? I had the most amazing blood orange sorbet, never seen it available before, but would certainly have it again.
On the way back home, via a coastal route, we popped into Wick Tesco to get a few things ready to take to the new cottage with us and Argos to pick up an adapter for the mircro SD card in the drone so we can get the footage off and view from Staxigoe harbour.
We went out again early afternoon to collect fish and chips for our dinner, which meant another drive to Wick which I am getting to know quite well now. The chip shop was down by the harbour so got to see the sun start to set while we were there.
After tea we completed out pack, leaving out just what we need for the morning, and stacked everything by the door ready to put in the car for tomorrow’s move to our cottage over on the west coast for the next week.