The Castle of Old Wick – A Cliff Walk and Lunch by the Harbour
A few hours, from Wick station and back.
The route
The Castle of Old Wick is a lone, roofless tower on a spine of rock between two sheer gullies, probably built in the 1160s, when this coast answered to the Norse earls of Orkney.
It's a walk of about four and a half miles there and back from Wick station, out along the cliffs past the Trinkie, the town's old seawater pool. Lunch is by the fishing boats at Wickers World on the way home. It's a fine morning for anyone who likes a cliff walk with some history at the end of it.
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, 16 miles away. Sleeps 18.
The day
Wick
Out of town along the South Head, a clifftop path to a ruin on the very edge of the sea, and a hearty lunch beside the harbour on the walk back.
About three hours
The Trinkie
An attraction
It's 33 minutes' walk from Wick station, past the harbour and out along the shore road on the South Head, to the Trinkie. This seawater pool was cut into the rocks of an old quarry below the cliffs and opened in the 1920s. Volunteers clean and paint it every year, and in summer swimmers brave its bracing water. Out of season it's a fine place to stop and look out over the North Sea for seals, seabirds and the odd dolphin. There are no toilets out on the cliffs.
15 min on foot
Castle of Old Wick
An attraction
From the Trinkie it's 15 minutes' walk on along the cliff path to the Castle of Old Wick. Only its four-storey tower still stands, on a narrow rock with a sheer drop on either side, and the finest view of it is from the path as it rounds the head of the northern gully. The castle lies inside a firing range: if a red flag flies from the mast by the stile halfway along, the range is in use, so turn back. If a fence is across the promontory, stay behind it. The edges are sheer and mostly unfenced, so keep children close and dogs on a lead, and save the walk for a dry, still day in daylight. Brig o' Stack, a 25-metre sea stack joined to the land by a narrow rock bridge, is a short walk along the cliffs from the castle: look from the top, never cross.
8 min on foot
Wickers World
Lunch
Walk 37 minutes back the way you came to Wickers World on Harbour Quay, the white café with a lighthouse on its sign, looking over the boats in the marina. It serves all-day breakfasts, homemade soup, daily specials and a great spread of home baking, and it opens Monday to Saturday from 9am; it's shut on Sundays. Children are welcome and it's said to be step-free, with toilets. On a Sunday, or if it's full, No 1 Bistro at Mackays Hotel, 8 minutes' walk away, serves lunch until 1.45pm. The station is 10 minutes' walk from the café.
If it rains
Almost all of this is out on the cliffs, so in rain or a strong wind leave it for another day. On a wet morning the Wick Heritage Centre on Bank Row, a couple of minutes from Wickers World, is under a roof from May to October.
No 1 Bistro, a restaurant in Wick.