Wow! What a night! Watching Orca’s on the coast of John O’Groats with a beautiful sunset as a backdrop - you can’t get much better than that!

There’s been a lot of Orca sightings close to shore around the Caithness coast in recent weeks and although we had been lucky enough to see Orca’s a few week ago in Thurso they were quite far from shore. We had missed a couple of excellent close encounters so mission Orca Watch was go with our friends and family - if they heard of any sighting they had to let us know straight away!

Around 10pm last night we got a call from my parents… “Orca’s have been spotted and they are heading towards John O’Groats!” Great! we thought, lets jump in the car and see if we will be lucky enough to see them close to shore this time!

Well we weren’t disappointed! The Orca’s came close to shore in John O’Groats itself before heading along the coast to Duncansby Head where they then disappeared. It really was magnificent to see these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat. The backdrop of a stunning sunset just set it off beautifully!

I was wishing I had a better camera as the pics and clips from my phone videos just don’t do it justice!

If you’re planning a trip to John O’Groats and want to catch sight of some Orca’s there’s some great information on the Orca Watch website about the annual event run by the Sea Watch Foundation.

The John O’Groats Ferry also run a wildlife cruise between May and August which is one for your To Do list when visiting! They’ve have had regular Orca sightings recently along with dolphins, seals and lots of other local wildlife.

Or you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse another time - if you see a group of people on the shore anywhere around the Caithness coast pop over and say Hi! They will be more than happy to let you know if they are there waiting for an Orca sighting.

One thing that can be easier to find in John O’Groats and around Caithness is a stunning sunset - the first pic was taken from the distillery site at almost 11pm!