Thurso Harbour Public Toilets
Community owned, community led.
The harbour toilets are an essential service and facilities for both locals and visitors to Thurso. Closed by the Highland Council in 2017/18, we took them over in July 2020 and have been running them ever since with a volunteer run operation over the Summer months. We love our little loos and hope you do too!
We aim to make them the best little loos in Scotland and the most sustainable ones. We have energy efficiency measures and only use environmentally friendly cleaning products in them. All of our waste is recycled and we even have sensor lights fitted. However, it does cost us to clean and maintain them. If you have used our loos or just want to support us, please consider making a donation to maintain them.
We have made various improvements to our loos since taking them into community ownership.
Installed water saving automatic taps
Installed light sensors to make them more energy efficient
Improvements made to the plumbing as they are old with plenty of issues!
Thanks to volunteers, the toilets have been painted to freshen them up
Installed new signage including our fabulous door panels and Discover Thurso panels, which through a clever QR code lead visitors to our Discover Thurso website crammed with information on things to do and see in the area
Installed baby changing and fixed the all important radar lock on our accessible toilets
Thurso Harbour Toilets Mural
In 2021 as part of our Discover Thurso Festival, we worked with young people from Thurso Youth Club and the Thurso Sea Cadets. Supported by Youth Highland, they created our fabulous mural at the Thurso Harbour Public Toilets. Funded by Nature Scot through the Plunge In! Year of Coast & Waterways Community Funding, we created a lifelong legacy for the festival and brightened up the loos and Thurso Harbour at the same time.
We are immensely proud of all the young people from Thurso who helped to create the mural, designed it and spent the day painting and completing it. It definitely draws a number of compliments and something to be proud of in the years to come.
You can see the young people (and helpers!) in action in the short video below showcasing our Discover Thurso Festival from 2021.
Accessibility
We are very grateful to be a member of the Highland Council Comfort Scheme.
Making our toilets both accessible and inclusive has been very important to us. We do not have unisex toilets - we still retain the separate gender toilets, but are inclusive to those who may wish to use them.
We also have a fully accessible toilet with handrails which can be accessed via a radar lock, even when the toilets are closed.
We also love our local language! Lassagies, Boyagies and Bairns are all part of the lingo up here in Thurso - but we do provide a translation just in case you aren’t quite sure.
Get Involved
Would you like to help out with the Thurso Harbour Public Toilets? We have different ways that you can get involved - from simply supporting us with a donation, volunteering to help open and close the toilets from April to October or supporting us by advertising in the toilets.
Yes, we have come up with the novel idea of local businesses advertising in the toilets to help support our operational costs. Because what else do you have to read in the loo, other than the back of the door? It also encourages the lovely visitors to our town who may be stopping for the loo, to come and explore more of what Thurso has to offer!
Volunteering at the loos is very easy. We have a bank of volunteers who work on a shift basis and co-ordinate any issues or cover where needed for your shift through a WhatsApp group. The toilet open from around 8/9am daily (a little later is ok) 5/6pm. We are pretty flexible with the timings.
Our volunteers take turns to open or close the loos - however best fits around their lives. The closing shift involves some light cleaning and emptying of the bins, whereas the opening shift just needs to unlock the toilets. All accessed via a handy key box for which you will be supplied the code. We give a full induction so that any volunteers will know what to expect.
Staff and Board members (who also take turns at opening, closing and cleaning) support everyone from the WhatsApp group. If there are ever any issues, you will get a quick response and know what to do or someone will step in to help. If you feel that you can assist, please visit our volunteer section and get in touch.
Volunteer
We are very fortunate to have two clear areas for advertising in the toilets where we can host up to 12 A4 advertising frames each. Your advert for these would be placed in both spots, one in the Boyagies and one in the Lassagies. In addition to this, for an extra cost you can have prime position on the back of the toilet cubicle doors.
Advertising in the main toilets is £20 per month.
Advertising on the back of the toilet cubicle doors is £30 per month.
Advertising runs from April through to the end of October.
If you are interested in advertising your local business in the toilets, please get in touch with us using the form below and we will get back in touch with you. We have had great success with this and it supports the operation of the loos which benefits the town and also encourages people to visit you.