I only had a few hours in Inverness – I wish I’d had longer – but in the event I had just the late evening of the day I arrived and the following morning. I filled the time as best I could by exploring, and the weather was good – a wonderful evening the first day, and at least dry until just before I left the day after.
Inverness itself is a small town, but it’s termed a city. In truth, like a number of Scottish towns, it has facilities that you wouldn’t expect in a town of that size in England. This is probably because towns are few and far between once you get above the Highland line, and what towns there are have to provide city-level services and facilities for people from a wide area. Inverness in particular is regarded as the capital of the Highlands, and many roads lead to it. It’s a centre of local government, commerce and education. It’s also a place where the Gaelic language is held in high regard, and a proportion of the local population speak Gaelic as their first language. The city centre itself is quite handsome with a number of old Victorian buildings as well as some less handsome 60s/70s concrete boxes. But Inverness Castle still stands proudly above the town. Dating from 1836 it replaced an earlier structure, and it’s still in use as the Sheriff Court.
The glory of the town, however, is the River Ness. The city centre sits on one bank, while on the opposite bank are a number of grand Victorian mansions, most of which have been repurposed as hotels. Spanning the river are several bridges – within the bounds of the city itself there are three, two for traffic and one pedestrian-only. Then going up-river there are river-side paths on both sides, and I believe these can be followed for long distances. Just a mile or so upriver are the Ness islands, and the paths cross these so they can be explored. Just a further short distance upstream the river runs alongside the Caledonian Canal – they both emerge from the northern end of Loch Ness some miles further south. I walked up the river to that point then diverted to the canal and walked along the tow-path back towards the town. The canal ends in a large basin where many boats are moored, and then exits to the estuary and on to the sea. After walking as far as the basin and at least looking at the estuary, it was then just a short walk back into the city and my hotel.
I rounded off my morning with a visit to the Inverness Museum. This was informative and interesting, with a lot if local information about the area and the highland people. It also had a good cafe where I had a large and tasty sandwich before heading back to the hotel to collect my bag and then heading for the train. Hopefully I’ll visit to Inverness some day.
My next train ride would not be in the luxury of first class on an HST – it was back to standard class on a ScotRail Turbostar to Glasgow Queen Street. Still, the views out of the windows were spectacular, at least as far as Perth, and I was looking forward to visiting Glasgow. It’s a city I’ve passed through several times (mainly on the M8 on the way to the western highlands) but have not visited before now.