Orkney Family Road Trip – Part 4: John o’Groats, Wick and Muir of Ord.

Our penultimate day on this adventure saw us up and out of our accommodation early, and heading toward the harbour to catch the first ferry out of Orkney – but not before a breakfast in a local café! We had been only a handful of days on this small island, but we had loved every minute of it, and the discussions over breakfast were firmly on when to make a return journey here!

John o’Groats

After another smooth crossing, we arrived in John o’Groats again, and since it was a lovely morning, we took the time to get those ‘touristy’ photos. As the saying goes, ‘When in Rome…’!

Wick

Since my husbands surprise Road trip to the GlenDronach Distillery the year before, it has become a tradition for my whisky loving husband to go on Distillery tours when we pass or visit towns with Distillery’s. With passing Wick on our route home, it made sense to drop into Old Pulteney too – we had pre-booked this tour, and I always recommend you pre-book where you can, as they are incredibly popular, whichever distillery you visit!

Having left the husband and parents at the Distillery, I headed down the same road on foot with the boys to see what we could find. We grabbed some snacks from a convenience store we’d passed, and found a lovely bench overlooking the harbour to refuel.

The mist was thick when we arrived, but as we sat there it slowly rose to reveal a lighthouse and the coastline. We finished the snacks and wandered further up the coastal road, before heading back to the car, where we found a small soft play area just by the distillery. I let the children free to burn off some more energy before we hopped back into the car for another few hours driving.

Muir of Ord

For the journey home from Orkney, we had decided to break the drive up into two legs, with an overnight stay, unlike the journey up. This was for two reasons. The first was so Dad could catch up with old friends and go for a meal with them, and the second was to ensure we had the time to take the boys to the Loch Ness museum! It meant a detour through the Higlands that gave us some beautiful views, and some photo opportunities from the passenger seat!

That night we stayed at Muir Bank, a lovely, newly refurbished building with several self contained en-suite rooms, in the village of Muir of Ord. We have recently seen it up for sale, so I’m not sure if it still is used for this purpose, but at the time we stayed we were very impressed with the quality of the rooms for the price – everything was still new and clean, and we loved the local photograph canvases in the rooms and throughout the communal areas.