John o’Groats

Hotel in the village of John o' Groats, Scotland.

John o’Groats, village—near Dunnet Head, the northernmost point of mainland Great Britain—in the Highland council area, historic county of Caithness, Scotland. The scattered village is the site of a house, now only a mound, connected with a story first recorded in 1793 in The Statistical Account of Scotland, which tells of John de Groot and his two brothers from Holland, who settled there with a royal letter of protection. The expression “from Land’s End to John o’Groats” (a distance of about 870 miles [1,400 km]) means “from end to end of Great Britain.” However, the northernmost part of the British mainland is in fact Dunnet Head, and the point on the mainland farthest from Land’s End is nearby Duncansby Head. The most northerly point in the British Isles is the Muckle Flugga lighthouse on a rock off the island of Unst in Shetland.