Tourists blasted for climbing on John O'Groats sign after finger-post snaps off

The iconic ‘Journey’s End’ sign will need repair.

A community organisation in John O’Groats has hit out at ‘thoughtless’ tourists for swinging on the iconic ‘Journey’s End’ signpost after one of its arms was snapped off.

The John O’Groats Development Trust said the Orkney finger post of the sign, which shows locations around the world and their distances from the area, had been snapped off on the morning off Tuesday 28 July.

The group shared several pictures of tourists posing while hanging off the sign on previous occasions, and said that actions like this had caused it to weaken.

The John O'Groats Development Trust shared pictures of others swinging on the sign previously.

The post has been shared thousands of times, with many criticising the “disgraceful” and “shocking” behaviour of the tourists.

The John O’Groats Development Trust said: "[...] someone decided to swing on the Orkney finger-post of the famous John O'Groats Signpost and has managed to snap it off!

"The signpost was restored and painted earlier this year already at a considerable cost and was looking well all fresh and clean, but now we will need to have it removed again and welded back together thanks to some thoughtless folk.

The John O'Groats Development Trust shared pictures of others swinging on the sign previously.

"We don't know who is responsible but have had photos shown to us of people swinging on it the last few days, which would have increasingly weakened the post.”

The group asked followers to contact those who were pictured swinging on the sign if possible.

"If anyone should know the offenders in the photos maybe they could contact us and offer some payment towards a now costly fix of the sign, and also an apology to those who will miss out on their photo at the sign when it goes away for a couple of days to be fixed,” they said.

“It really is such a shame when a few clowns ruin things for hundreds of others!”

The original Journey’s End sign was installed in 1964 on private land. Visitors had to pay a fee for a photograph of themselves next to it.

A new, free to access sign was unveiled in 2014.

It informs visitors they are 874 miles from Land’s End, 273 miles from Edinburgh and 3230 miles from New York.

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