Family-run Highland hotel on world's shortest street celebrates three generations of ownership

Ebenezer Place in Wick, the World's Shortest Street, on which the entrance to No.1 Bistro sits, which is part of Mackays Hotel.

A hotel on the world's shortest street is celebrating three generations of the same family running it for 65 years - with the owner starting work there aged just eight.

Mackays Hotel in Wick, Caithness, the northernmost point of mainland Scotland, has been passed down through three generations of the same family since 1955.

Murray and Ellie Lamont, both 63, run it with daughter Jennifer, 34 - and dad-of-one Murray started working there aged eight years old and bought it in the 90s.

The Lamont family at Mackays Hotel (L-R): Jennifer Lamont, Murray Lamont, and Ellie Lamont

His dad, Donald J Lamont, bought it in 1956, from his mother-in-law, Catherine Macrae, who was the first owner.

The purpose built hotel opened in 1883 by the Sinclair family who leased it until it was sold to Murray's maternal gran in the 1950s.

It's on the world's shortest street, Ebenezer Place, recognised in the Guinness Book of World Records, which was named for the Hebrew word meaning 'kindness'.

Plans had been afoot to celebrate the family owning it for 65 years but have been put on hold due to coronavirus.

The hotel, which is on the North Coast 500 route, reopened in July with around a third of the usual numbers of visitors due to social distancing.

Murray said: "We bought it in the 90s from my dad, and we built it up to the size it is.

"I was eight when I started working there, we stayed at the hotel at the time, I suppose it is like growing up on a farm and doing things there.

"It wouldn't be allowed now but we didn't clean the chimneys."

His mum, Morag, 87, is thrilled with the hotels' success.

Murray added: "She's delighted, it has all been great fun.

"We try to champion local produce and to keep as much fresh produce in as we can.

"We were planning a celebration but we can't at the moment, we might wait until next year."

While studying at the University of Dundee, Murray worked at the hotel on weekends - and he has worked there for 42 years.

In the lockdown it gave veterans and pensioners regular hot meals and companionship whilst self-isolating at home, as well as a meals on wheels home delivery service for people.

Accommodation was also let out to key workers shielding from their families.

Murray said the unusually small street which makes up a part of the site was put there by the founding Sinclair family as a gesture of gratitude for their good fortune in life.

He added: "It's only six feet long and nine inches wide.

"It was made by the Sinclairs when they built the building.

"Ebenezer is a Hebrew word meaning 'kind, caring, looking after', it is in the Bible.

"The Sinclairs felt life had been good to them and made the street Ebenezer Place."

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