St John's Point – A Headland Walk and Lunch at Annie's Bakery
About 1.8 miles on foot.
St John's Point is a quiet headland at East Mey, on the Pentland Firth between Dunnet Head and John o' Groats, with an old promontory fort at its tip and the island of Stroma across the water.
Walk an easy hour round it along the coast, then drive a few minutes to Annie's Bakery at Upper Gills for soup, a sandwich and something from its own ovens.
- Time
- About an hour.
- The path
- Faint paths over rough ground.
- Where to start
- At the start of the walk, a bend in the road east of East Mey.
- When to go
- Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Sunday.
- Dogs
- On a short lead or close at heel near farm animals, as the Scottish Outdoor Access Code asks.
- Children
- Keep children well back from the cliff edges.
The walk
St John's Point is an easy coastal loop of about 1.75 miles (2.75 km), an hour or so, from a bend in the minor road east of East Mey, off the A836. The faint paths are boggy at first and soon firm up.
On the headland are the banks of an old promontory fort, the turf-covered footings known locally as St John's Chapel, and an old jetty where herring was once landed. Just offshore are the rocks called the Men of Mey, with the fast tides of the Firth running past, and the views take in Stroma, empty now, and John o' Groats along the coast.
If it rains
On a wet day, Annie's Bakery is under cover.
Afterwards
9 min by car
Annie's Bakery
Lunch
It's 9 minutes' drive south to Annie's Bakery at Upper Gills, a bakery shop and café with parking beside it. It bakes its own bread, rolls, pies, sausage rolls, cakes and traybakes, and at lunchtime there's soup, sandwiches, salads, baked potatoes and a Fisherman's Lunch, with lunch boxes for children, to eat in or take away. What's on the counter changes from day to day, and its Facebook page has the latest.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is House of the Northern Gate in Dunnet, 7 miles away. Sleeps 18.
Make it a weekend
More days out near Thurso.
For further reading, before you go.
Photographs by Claudia and Sally Clare via Google