Thurso is worth a couple of days!
There’s a broad, sweeping bridge as you come into Thurso that makes quite a statement of intent. Once you’re across, you’re largely left to work out for yourself why you might want to stay. The older streets grew up by the river, and as you head farther into town you can see the change to the broad, straight streets Sir John Sinclair laid out in 1798. You’ll find him on a pedestal in the little garden in Sir John’s Square. It took rather a long time to get him up there, as you’ll discover in our article on the making of New Thurso.
If I’ve got three quarters of an hour, I’ll take the dogs along the River Thurso, cross the footbridge and come back on the other bank. The promenade is an easy stroll too, with a view across the bay from above the little sandy beach. With more time, I’d go out to Scrabster and walk past the old lighthouse towards Holborn Head. There’s a sea stack along that stretch of coast, and on a clear day you can see across to Orkney. If you’re in Thurso wondering what to do with the day, I’d go to the North Coast Visitor Centre.
The museum has artefacts from across Caithness, and the exhibition on Dounreay shows how much life here changed when the nuclear power station arrived. You can have a coffee while you’re there, and it’s worth asking the people behind the desk where they’d go next, because they know Caithness well. There’s a good choice of places to stay in town, and if you’re here for supper, I can thoroughly recommend the Pride of Bengal. I’d give Thurso a couple of nights, because arriving by car doesn’t mean you have to do everything by car. Take the train south through the Flow Country and you can sit by the window and see stretches of peatland the road never takes you through.
Get off at Forsinard for the visitor centre in the old station and a walk out to the Flows Lookout, or stay on to Helmsdale and spend a few hours there before coming back. You’ll find more in our Peatlands section and our article on Helmsdale. Check the return train before you set off. And if you’re wondering how long Thurso has been trying to persuade people to stay, I’ll tell you in the blogcast what happened when the town put its case in a two-penny guide. To learn more, listen to the blogcast or book one of our Private Tours.