Qualla: John o' Groats https://qualla.com/john-o-groats en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/v/john-o-groats-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: John o' Groats https://qualla.com/john-o-groats John o' Groats: Introduction https://qualla.com/john-o-groats/ Photo credit Madras9096, CC BY-SA 4.0. Jan de Groot was Dutch, not Scottish, and the date everyone agrees on is 1489. He came north with his brothers to set up a ferry across the Pentland Firth to Orkney - a stretch of water just six miles wide and pretty much always trying to kill you. Legend says he built an octagonal house with eight doors so his brothers could enter without arguing about precedence. The legend is almost certainly nonsense; no trace of such a building has ever been found. But the name stuck. John o' Groats - the anglicised version of Jan de Groot - became the byword for the absolute end of the road, the upper-left punctuation mark on the British mainland, the place where you finally cannot go any further north without a boat.

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Image: Madras9096 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/v/john-o-groats-wk/gfmv-john-o-groats-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full John o' Groats: The Signpost https://qualla.com/john-o-groats/ Photo credit Postdlf, CC BY-SA 3.0. There is a signpost. People come for the signpost. It points to Land's End - 874 miles by the most direct walking route - and to Edinburgh, and Orkney, and New York. The original was installed in 1964 by a private company that figured out you could charge tourists to be photograp...

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Image: Postdlf | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/v/john-o-groats-wk/gfmv-john-o-groats-the-signpost.mp3 0:06 2 full John o' Groats: Not the Most Northerly https://qualla.com/john-o-groats/ Photo credit Otter, CC BY-SA 3.0. John o' Groats is not actually the most northerly point of the British mainland. Dunnet Head, fourteen miles west, holds that title. It is not the most northerly settlement either - little places around the Castle of Mey can probably make a case. It is not even the most northerly...

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Image: Otter | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/v/john-o-groats-wk/gfmv-john-o-groats-not-the-most-northerly.mp3 0:06 3 full John o' Groats: Land's End to John o' Groats https://qualla.com/john-o-groats/ Photo credit August Schwerdfeger, CC BY 4.0. The whole tourist identity of John o' Groats was invented in the 1960s, when a series of long-distance walkers and cyclists and assorted eccentrics began making the journey from one end of Britain to the other - either Land's End to John o' Groats (LeJog) or the reverse (JogLe). ...

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Image: August Schwerdfeger | CC BY 4.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/v/john-o-groats-wk/gfmv-john-o-groats-lands-end-to-john-o-groats.mp3 0:06 4 full John o' Groats: Across the Firth https://qualla.com/john-o-groats/ Photo credit Dorcas Sinclair, CC BY-SA 2.0. The real wonder of John o' Groats is the view. Step away from the signpost and look north. The Pentland Firth churns away in front of you, a tidal channel where the Atlantic floods then drains the North Sea twice a day, generating some of the fiercest currents in the world. Beyon...

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Image: Dorcas Sinclair | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/v/john-o-groats-wk/gfmv-john-o-groats-across-the-firth.mp3 0:06 5 full John o' Groats: What's Around https://qualla.com/john-o-groats/ Photo credit Flaxton, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Castle of Mey, six miles west, was the Queen Mother's beloved Caithness home from 1952 until her death. Jan de Groot the ferryman lies buried in the kirkyard at Canisbay nearby. East along the cliff path lies Duncansby Head - the actual northeasternmost corner of Britain - wi...

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Image: Flaxton | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/m/v/john-o-groats-wk/gfmv-john-o-groats-whats-around.mp3 0:06 6 full