Hill Wanderings - Walking in the Lakes: Whaligoe & its Steps

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Whaligoe & its Steps - The unique tourist attraction

In the summer of 2013 I had planned to take the kids to John O' Groats and Dunnet Head, as I never like to visit anywhere without an OS map of the area I'd picked up the Landranger sheet (12) for Thurso & Wick. As usual with my map 'OCD', I studied it first and noticed in the bottom right corner the word "Steps" highlighted in blue, denoting a site of tourist interest.

Steps? When have steps ever been a tourist attraction, indeed my house has several ? With the seeds of intrigue sown, I planned to keep an eye out for the village of Whaligoe as I traveled north to Wick. Of course in a blink it was gone, a hasty U turn brought us back to Whaligoe and a small parking area beyond some cottages was located. A honesty box selling a small tourist guide, 'Whaligoe and its Steps - The Unique Harbour' by Iain Sutherland proved that I had correctly located Whaligoe and its steps.

If like me you have never heard of the Whaligoe Steps they are a flight of 365 steps descending 250 feet of sea cliff to a fishing station & harbour. If it wasn't for the OS I would have driven past this one, well worth a visit.

This motorbike was rusting away near the car park...