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Inverness Museum and Art Gallery and lunch at Rocpool
Inverness

Inverness Museum – Pictish Stones, Jacobites and Lunch

A few hours, from Inverness station and back.

The route

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery is a lovely way to get to know the Highlands in an hour, and it's free.

Its galleries run from carved Pictish stones to the Jacobites. It's a few minutes' walk from the station, and just across the river Rocpool serves lunch behind big windows over the water. It's a good choice on a wet day, and for anyone new to the Highlands.

Before you go

  1. Book accommodation nearby

    If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.

    The nearest of ours is Newhall Mains in Balblair, 13 miles away.

  2. Book lunch at Rocpool

    Book a table for lunch at Rocpool on its website for about 12.30pm, after the museum: it serves lunch Tuesday to Saturday from noon to 2pm, shuts on Sundays and Mondays, and takes a card to hold the booking.

The day

Inverness

An easy few hours in the middle of town: an hour among the museum's galleries, then a long lunch on the far bank of the river.

About three hours

  1. Inverness Museum and Art Gallery

    Inverness Museum and Art Gallery

    An attraction

    It's 5 minutes' walk from the station to Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, at the top of Castle Wynd beside the Town House, and it's free. The galleries tell the story of the Highlands, from the rocks and wildlife through carved Pictish stones and the Jacobites to the town's own past, with changing art exhibitions alongside. An hour is about right. From April to October it opens Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm. There are steps at the entrance and the lift is out of order for now, so the museum can't take wheelchairs or anyone who needs step-free access until it's mended.

    More about Inverness Museum and Art Gallery

  2. 8 min on foot

    Rocpool

    Rocpool

    Lunch

    Walk 3 minutes from the museum down to the river and over the Ness Bridge to Rocpool, on the corner of Ness Walk. It's a brasserie with a glass front looking out on the river, cooking good Scottish produce. It serves lunch Tuesday to Saturday from noon to 2pm and is shut on Sundays and Mondays. Book a table online, as it's often full; a card holds the booking. If it's full, Café Artysans by the station does a lighter lunch. The station is 8 minutes' walk back.

    More about Rocpool

If it rains

Both are indoors: on a wet day only the 5-minute walk from the station and the 3 minutes over the Ness Bridge are out in it.

Rocpool