TO THE END OF THE WORLD....(or at least the UK)

We were graced with the presence of father Strickland (my Dad) for a week a couple of weeks ago, when he came over for a flying visit to check we were alive and ok and to experience some of the delights that Scotland can offer. He really got us up and moving and on a 2 day road trip to John O'Groats at the very top of Scotland. The town's (I use the term town very loosely) claim to fame is:
Not the most northern village...
but the northerly end of the longest distance between two points on the British mainland. Land's End being the other.
(Does that sentence need some punctuation? I don't think grammar is a big deal in this part of the world)
After about 6 hours solid driving from Edinburgh we finally arrived at JOHN O'GROATS to find this:
That strange box that Dad and Andrew are standing next to is where you would usually find the sign that looks kinda like this:
It seems that vandals continuously pinching the sign have lead to it being locked up. There was a notice on the sign suggesting you could give Pete a call and he would come down and unlock the sign and let you take your picture with it. We decided not to disturb Pete's Sunday night.
Apart from one of the most overloaded crappy tourist souvenir shops there was not a lot to this end of the land. It did have a kind of bleak beauty about it all. See for yourself:



There is something quiet Dickensian about this Manor house, that stood empty and dark, not far from our accommodation:
We stayed up to 12am just to see how dark (or light) it gets in this northerly place.
On the way home we came across this delightful castle. It looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.



All is all we had a fantastic road trip and a brilliant week with my Dad. Thanks for visiting Dad! Can't wait to see you again soon!