John o' Groats
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John o' Groats' location within the British Isles |
John o' Groats (
Taigh Iain Ghròt in
Scottish Gaelic) () is a village in the
traditional county of
Caithness, in the
Highland council area of
Scotland, and is usually regarded as the most northerly settlement on the mainland of
Great Britain . The actual location of the most northerly point, however, is at nearby
Dunnet Head ().
The name John o' Groats has a particular resonance because it is so often used in outlining the length of Great Britain when races, walks and charitable events take place between the
Cornish point,
Land's End (at the extreme western tip of the Cornish peninsula in
England) and John o' Groats. The phrase
Land's End to John o' Groats is frequently heard both as a literal journey and as a
metaphor for great or all-encompassing distance.
The punctuation and capitalisation in
John o' Groats is the correct form. The space after
o' appears to vary but was probably the correct older form.
The town takes its name from Jan de Groot, a
Dutchman who obtained a grant for the ferry from the Scottish mainland to
Orkney, recently acquired from
Norway, from
King James IV in
1496.
*
Visit John o' Groats*
Undiscovered Scotland page about the village and area
