John and Yoko with his Austin Maxi (Image: NC)
While Sir Paul McCartney’s links to Kintyre are well-documented, his fellow Beatle John Lennon also loved Scotland after spending many blissful summers north of the Border as a child. From the age of nine Lennon spent his summer holidays with his Aunt ‘Mater’ who had remarried and moved to Edinburgh. He would travel alone by bus to visit his aunt and his cousin Stanley Parkes in the capital and also at their family croft in Durness, Sutherland.
While in the wilderness the aspiring singer-songwriter hunted, hiked, fished and played tricks on the locals by tying seaweed on shop doors to prevent workers from leaving.
He also drew and wrote poetry in the tranquility of the hills.
But the Scottish breaks ended when Lennon was around 15 after he formed his first band, The Quarrymen, and music took over.
However, after his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he wished to rekindle his Highland fling and during a break from the band’s Abbey Road recording sessions he packed his new bride, her five-year-old daughter Kyoko and his six-year-old son Julian in a Mini and set off north.
Although Lennon had passed his driving test four years before he was a nervous driver and usually relied on his chauffeur to drive him around.
The family hadn’t even made it to Scotland when the pop icon called his trusted driver to bring along his Austin Maxi but insisted on taking the wheel himself.
By all accounts they made it to Sutherland without further incident, but the holiday was cut short during a day trip to Tongue some 30-miles from the Durness croft, when Lennon crashed the car.
Reports said they were travelling in “dire weather” when he spotted a tourist driving towards him, panicked and smashed his Maxi.
John gave an autograph during the family's stay at Lawson Memorial Hospital after their crash (Image: NC)
Cousin Stanley later recalled: “John had a chauffeur-driven Rolls, a Ferrari and a Porsche, but he turned up in Durness in an old Maxi.
“But he was a terrible driver with bad eyesight.”
Philip Norman also wrote about the incident in his biography, John Lennon: The Life.
He said: “On a stretch of providentially empty road, he lost control of the car and it veered into a roadside ditch.
“He and Yoko and Kyoko each suffered cuts to the face and Yoko an injured back.”
The Beatle and his family were taken to Lawson Memorial Hospital, in Golspie, where he received 17 stitches for wounds to his face which left him permanently scarred.
His wife needed 14 stitches and little Kyoko four. Only Julian survived the accident with no physical injuries although he was treated for shock.
To make matters worse, his ex-wife, Cynthia Powell, turned up demanding an explanation why her son was in Scotland without her knowledge, but Lennon
