Travel: John Lennon – Edinburgh to Golspie

John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s trip to Edinburgh ended on 30 June 1969, and they drove up to Golspie in the Scottish Highlands.

They were accompanied by Lennon’s six-year-old son Julian and Ono’s five-year-old daughter Kyoko. Lennon, a notoriously poor driver, drove them in a British Leyland Austin Maxi car.

They took the ferry from Queensferry to Kirkcaldy, to visit Lennon’s step-uncle Angus. That afternoon they set off for Durness, but spent the night in the small town Golspie. They stayed at the Kildonan B&B on 12 Ferry Road.

Lennon’s cousin Stanley Parkes later recalled:

John never forgot those times at Durness. They were among his happiest memories. He loved the wilderness. John was nine when he started coming up with my family to the croft in Durness. The croft belonged to my stepfather, Robert Sutherland, and John just loved the wildness and the openness of the place. We went fishing and hunting and John loved going up into the hills to draw or write poetry. John really loved hill walking, shooting and fishing. He used to catch salmon. He would have been quite a laird. In the last letter to me before he was killed he quoted a famous Scottish saying that says ‘It’s a braw, bricht moonlicht nicht since I last had a word’.

The following day Lennon crashed the Austin Maxi near Durness, resulting in injuries for him, Ono, and Kyoko, and a hospital stay in Golspie.