Annie's Bakery

A few miles short of John o' Groats, in the scattered crofting township of Canisbay at the very top of the mainland, Annie Body runs a bakery out of a building called Bridle Way — breads and rolls, sausage rolls and pies, cakes and traybakes, a short breakfast-and-lunch menu, and celebration cakes made to order for the far north's weddings and birthdays. It opens four days a week, and in a corner of Caithness where the nearest supermarket is a serious drive, that rhythm is the point: locals plan around it, and passing travellers on the last stretch of the North Coast 500 have learned to as well. Annie has run it single-handed since 2013, which in a place this remote is less a business than a small act of public service. There is something quietly heroic about a proper bakery this far from anywhere, and the sausage rolls do not disappoint.