Saturday, November 9, 2024

The world’s shortest street that’s just seven feet long is in the UK

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A pretty seaside town in the far north of the UK is home to a street with only one doorway and that will take you just a few strides to walk along.

Guinness World Record holder Ebenezer Place in Wick measures just six-foot-nine from end to end and has one address, the front door of No 1. Bistro, part of Mackays Hotel.

The bijou thoroughfare has been registered with Guinness World Records since 2006 when the well-known milestone collector announced the street in Caithness was the world’s shortest.

The then owner of Mackays, Murray Lamont, told the BBC he had always been confident Ebenezer Place would set a world record.

He said: “Everyone is delighted. The street was built in 1883 and people here know about it but I decided to put it firmly on the map. It has certainly become a great point of interest.”

Despite the first name connection to the lead character from Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’, Mr Lamont said at the time of the street being recognised that he was unaware of how it came to be named, adding: “It could have religious or Masonic roots.”

Ebenezer is also a Biblical name and has Hebrew origins, meaning “stone of the help”.

The Daily Record reports Wick is a quaint little town found in the far north of Scotland that was at one time a Viking settlement. Straddling the River Wick and extending along both sides of Wick Bay, it was also once the busiest herring port in Europe.

Measuring just over two metres in length, Ebenezer Place features only one address.

Part of Mackays Hotel, the Record said No 1. Bistro makes up for its small address with a big menu and the chance to tell your friends you have dined on the smallest street on the planet.

Ebenezer Place itself goes back to the late-19th century, when the building was erected. In 1887, it was officially named a street.

According to Visit Scotland: “Around three miles north from Wick the dramatic 15th to 17th century ruins of Sinclair and Girnigoe castles rise steeply from a needle-thin promontory.

“There is a good clifftop walk to the castle via Noss Head Lighthouse from the tiny fishing village of Staxigoe.

“Visitors will encounter a wide selection of wildlife along the way including various species of seabirds and puffins and a beautiful scenic beach, popular for windsurfing and sand-yachting, awaits them at the end of Sinclair Bay.”

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