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City in Scottish Highlands, Scotland

Inverness

The first recorded sighting of the Loch Ness Monster wasn't on the loch at all. It happened in the River Ness, right where Inverness stands, around AD 565.

Key information

County
Scottish Highlands
Nation
Scotland
Known for
River Ness, Caledonian Canal, Loch Ness on its doorstep, Culloden nearby, Inverness Castle
What locals are called
Invernessians
Famous people
Saint Columba, King Bridei, Thomas Telford, Mary, Queen of Scots (all linked to the city)
Football clubs
Inverness Caledonian Thistle (Scottish Cup winners 2015); Clachnacuddin (Highland League)

About Inverness

The monster that was here first

Around AD 565, according to the biographer of Saint Columba, the Irish monk was near the River Ness when he came upon locals burying a man who had been mauled by a water beast. Columba sent a follower to swim across. When the creature surged towards him, the saint made the sign of the cross and ordered it back, and it fled. That is the earliest written hint of a Ness monster, and it happened in the river that flows through Inverness, not out on the loch. Columba was in the area to visit Bridei, king of the Picts, whose power base is thought to have lain close to the city. The name itself is a map reference. Inverness comes from the Gaelic Inbhir Nis, 'mouth of the Ness', and the river is only a few miles long, draining Loch Ness into the Moray Firth.

Macbeth, a snubbed queen and a hanged governor

Shakespeare placed Macbeth's castle at Inverness, and the city has happily claimed the connection ever since. The real Macbeth was a Highland ruler who held power in the eleventh century, but the playwright's murderous version stuck. A more solid story comes from 1562. Mary, Queen of Scots arrived in Inverness and found the castle gates shut against her by its governor, who was loyal to the powerful Earl of Huntly. Her supporters took the castle, and the governor was hanged. The castle you see today is a Victorian red sandstone building from the 1830s, which spent much of its life as a courthouse. It sits on a bluff above the river and is the city's best-known skyline.

The cabinet that met in a Highland town hall

On 7 September 1921, the British Cabinet gathered in Inverness Town House. Prime Minister David Lloyd George was on holiday at Gairloch, and the ministers came north to discuss the Irish situation. It is a remarkable moment: for a day, the government of the United Kingdom was run from a Highland burgh. Inverness was always a place where roads and rivers met. Telford's Caledonian Canal, opened in 1822, linked the east coast to the west through the Great Glen and passes right by the city's edge. The railway arrived in 1855 and cemented Inverness as the gateway to the north. The city's long-standing status as the Highlands' main hub was made official in 2000, when it was granted city status.

Stone of the tubs and a boat-shaped hill

At the Old Town's Market Cross sits the Clach na Cudainn, the 'stone of the tubs'. Tradition says women carrying water up from the river would rest their tubs on it. Locals have long treated it as a symbol of the town's survival, and it even gave Highland League club Clachnacuddin their name. On the city's southern side is Tomnahurich, a steep, wooded hill shaped like an upturned boat. It is now a cemetery, and its Gaelic name is often translated as 'hill of the yews'. Legend ties it to fairies and to a story of two fiddlers who were lured inside. A short stroll away, the Ness Islands are a Victorian walkway of tree-lined islets in the river, linked by footbridges and popular with dog walkers and anglers hoping for salmon.

Super Caley go ballistic

Inverness Caledonian Thistle only came into being in 1994, when Caledonian and Inverness Thistle merged, and the club was elected to the Scottish Football League later that same year. In February 2000, the young side went to Celtic Park and beat Celtic 3-1 in the Scottish Cup, prompting one of football's best-loved headlines: 'Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious'. The club's greatest day came in May 2015, when they beat Falkirk 2-1 at Hampden Park to win the Scottish Cup, their first major trophy. Clachnacuddin, the 'Lilywhites', are the city's older club and play in the Highland League. Shinty and Highland games complete a sporting scene that feels distinctly northern.

Salmon, venison and the Highland larder

Inverness sits among prime Highland country, and the local menu reflects it: salmon from the Ness and nearby rivers, venison from the hills, and beef from Highland cattle. Hearty soups and stews, oatcakes and cranachan, the oats, cream, raspberry and whisky pudding, appear on plenty of menus. The Moray Firth next door brings fresh seafood, and the surrounding glens are home to some of Scotland's best-known whisky distilleries. Eden Court, on the river bank, is the cultural centre, with a theatre and cinema, and Inverness Cathedral, completed in 1869, is the city's grand Victorian church. For many visitors Inverness is the base for Loch Ness, and for Culloden, where the 1746 battlefield lies just east of the city.

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