journey<\/a> to Land’s End in the south of England. The lengthy 874-mile route takes cyclists between 10 and 14 days to complete on average, while off-road walkers typically take two or three months to cover the distance.<\/p>\n![\"Group](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Group-of-road-sign-at-John-o-Groats-Canisbay-Highland-Scotland.jpg\")
The famous John o\u2019 Groats Signpost(Image: Feifei Cui-Paoluzzo \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Telegraph criticised John O’ Groats for being “a lie”, with the newspaper describing the nearby Dunnet Head as the true most northernly location on the Scottish mainland. The village was also slammed for its “appalling” gift shop and its toilets.<\/p>\n
The Telegraph wrote: “And finally, the most undeserving tourist attraction of them all. The entire concept of John O\u2019Groats is a lie. It is not, and never has been, the most northerly point on the British mainland. That accolade goes to Dunnet Head a few miles along the road.<\/p>\n
“Persevere with this parvenu excuse of a ‘must see’ and you\u2019ll be ‘rewarded’ with a car park, an inevitably appalling gift shop and a toilet block.<\/p>\n
“But at least you can now take a free picture of the fabled signpost (in previous years you had to pay) which tells you exactly how many miles you are from Land\u2019s End, a similarly dispiriting tourist experience, though with a slightly nicer toilet block.”<\/p>\n
John O’ Groats previously received the Carbuncle Award from architecture magazine Urban Realm in 2010 for being “the most dismal place” in Scotland. At the time, it was criticised by Urban Realm for its “reliance upon tourist tat” and for being home to “Britain’s most northerly derelict building”.<\/p>\n
However, in the years since, the village has seen a number of redevelopment and regeneration projects. New businesses have opened their doors in the village, while historic buildings have been restored\u2014such as the John O’ Groats Mill that recently opened as a not-for-profit heritage visitor attraction and community venue.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_The-John-O-Groats-Mill-exterior.png\")
The John O’ Groats Mill(Image: Google Maps)<\/p>\n
Other destinations featured on The Telegraph’s list of the worst tourist destinations in Europe include Leicester Square in London and The Blarney Stone in Ireland. The former is the centre of London’s entertainment district and was described by the newspaper as “a vision of what Las Vegas would be like if it was run by Michael O\u2019Leary”, while The Blarney Stone is a supposedly magical block of limestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle that was criticised by The Telegraph for being unhygienic.<\/p>\n
Further afield, The Telegraph also criticised The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen and the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. The Little Mermaid is a bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen that depicts the classic fairytale of a mermaid becoming human, which was noted by the newspaper for its small size, while the Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa that was blasted for its crowd density.<\/p>\n
The full list of Europe’s “most naff attractions where no discerning tourist would be seen dead” can be found on The Telegraph website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The northern beauty spot was described as “naff”.The popular tourist destination has been named among the “most naff”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,921,4884,712,81214,5006,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-662788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-discover-scotland","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-things-to-do-scotland","13":"tag-tourism","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115809379036316442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Scenic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Scenic-Harbor-With-Fishing-Boats-And-Colorful-Apartment-Houses-At-John-oGroats-In-Scotland.jpg\")
The popular tourist destination has been named among the “most naff” in Europe(Image: grafxart8888 \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n