Castle of Mey News

• The Castle and Gardens of Mey, together with its new visitor centre and animal centre opened on 1May for the 2007 season.
• On 11 May 2007, film stars Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman stayed at the Castle of Mey prior to the start of another epic motorcycle ride, this time from John o'Groats to Cape Town. Also staying at the castle were Ewan's father Jim, his brother Colin and various other members of the 'Long Way Down' team. They set off on Saturday morning and hoped to reach Cape Town on 4th August.
• On 7 July 2007, The Antiques Road Show came to the Castle of Mey. The weather in the week before the event was perfect and tables were set up along the front driveway to the Castle in readiness for the day. However, the Caithness weather did a complete 'turnabout' and the heavens opened in the early hours of Saturday and it didn't stop raining all day! In spite of this, more than 900 people turned up and several interesting items were filmed for the programme which was shown on January 6th 2008.
• 27 July 2007 until 7 August inclusive - the Castle was closed when their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay stayed.
• 4 August 2007 - the splendid new visitor centre was officially opened by Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay. Also present was Ms Julia Kauffman who very generously supported the project. She and her daughters flew to Wick from Kansas City, Missouri in order to attend the ceremony.
• Sunday 16 September. Around fifteen vintage vehicles belonging to the Caithness and Sutherland Vintage Vehicle Club arrived at the Castle of Mey at about 3.00 pm. Club members transported visitors from Brilon, Germany, to the event. The visitors were making an annual visit as part of their town's twinning with Thurso.
• 30 September was the last day of the season and the castle closed except for booked coaches and parties in October.
• October. The highest five-star award was granted to the castle after an unannounced visit in September from Visit Scotland. The castle, gardens, grounds, animal centre and visitor centre were all checked out and passed with flying colours!
• December - The visitor centre opened for Christmas shopping three weekends in December.

The total number of visitors in 2007 was 29,300, an increase of 24.5% over 2006.