17th July 2026
Walk through Wick or Thurso today and you'll probably hear the same conversation.
"There used to be a shop there" and "It's another empty building followed by "Everything's online now."
For many people, the decline of the traditional High Street feels inevitable. Online shopping, home deliveries, internet banking and changing lifestyles have transformed the way we live. Even charity shops, once thought immune from many of the pressures facing retailers, are closing branches.
But perhaps we're asking the wrong question.
Instead of wondering how to bring back the High Street of the 1980s or 1990s, perhaps we should be asking what Wick and Thurso should become over the next twenty years.
After all, towns have never stood still.
Wick was once one of Europe's busiest herring ports. Thousands of people worked in fishing, boat building, curing yards and associated industries. As those industries declined, the town adapted. Later came the Dounreay era, bringing new opportunities and changing the local economy again.
Thurso has also reinvented itself several times. Once a market town serving the surrounding countryside, it became closely linked with Dounreay and remains the larger shopping centre for much of Caithness.
History tells us that successful towns survive because they adapt not because they try to recreate the past.
By 2045, shopping may no longer be the main reason people visit town centres.
Instead, they could become places where people meet rather than simply places where they buy things.
Imagine walking through Wick or Thurso on a Saturday morning.
Independent cafés are busy.
A local food market is taking place in the square.
Craft producers are selling goods made in Caithness.
Children are using attractive public spaces.
Visitors have come to learn about local history, the coastline and wildlife before exploring the North Coast 500.
Health services, council offices and community organisations have brought more people into the town centres during the week.
Buildings that once stood empty have been converted into flats, studios, workshops or shared office space for people working remotely for companies based hundreds of miles away.
Fast broadband means someone can work for a business in London or Edinburgh while enjoying the quality of life that Caithness offers.
Local entrepreneurs are using empty premises as flexible workspaces, creating businesses that sell to customers around the world rather than relying solely on local footfall.
Renewable energy projects around the Pentland Firth continue to bring employment, while tourism, food production, digital businesses and specialist manufacturing help broaden the local economy.
Of course, none of this happens by accident.
It requires planning, investment and a willingness to accept that yesterday's solutions may not solve tomorrow's problems.
Empty shops cannot remain empty indefinitely. Some may never again become retail premises. Instead, they could become homes, offices, community facilities or entirely new types of businesses that we have not yet imagined.
That is not a sign of failure.
It is simply another chapter in the long history of towns adapting to changing times.
The greatest strength of Caithness has never been its buildings.
It has always been its people.
People who built fishing fleets.
People who transformed farming.
People who developed one of the world's most important nuclear research sites.
People who continue to create businesses despite the challenges of living far from Scotland's major cities.
The next generation will shape Wick and Thurso in ways we cannot yet fully predict.
The question is not whether change is coming.
It already has.
The real question is whether we are prepared to shape that change ourselves—or simply watch it happen.
If we start planning today, Wick and Thurso in 2045 could be very different places from the towns we remember.
Different does not have to mean worse.
It could mean stronger, more diverse and better suited to the way people live in the twenty-first century.
Perhaps that is the future we should be discussing.