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Places to visit
in Inverness-shire.

It’s 09:19 in Inverness-shire.
Inverness-shire

Loch Ness, Culloden and the Great Glen.

Inverness-shire runs down the Great Glen from the Moray Firth, with Inverness at the top and Loch Ness stretching away south-west between wooded hills. You can climb the tower of Urquhart Castle on its headland, take a cruise from Inverness or Fort Augustus, and walk the moor at Culloden where the last Jacobite Rising ended. To the west lie the pinewoods and waterfalls of Glen Affric. To the east and north come the Clava Cairns, the sands of Nairn, the Black Isle and the Pictish stones of Easter Ross. Give it a few days, and bring boots for the glens.

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Just opened9 hours ago

Ancho, a Mexican street food counter, has opened in the Victorian Market in Inverness.

It serves birria, burritos, bowls, quesadillas and tacos in the market's food hall, from the team behind Ollie's Pops in the same market.

See The Victorian Market · Inverness-shire
Place of the day8 hours ago

Ness Islands.

Wooded islands in the River Ness at Inverness, linked by footbridges to both banks, with riverside paths from the castle.

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From our archive8 hours agoThe Black IsleBakhoos BakeryInvernessBeauly PrioryInvernessBlack Isle BarThe Black IsleBlack Isle BreweryInvernessCoffee AffairInvernessCoyote Burger

Inverness-shire this autumn, in our photographs.

Six places in Inverness-shire, each as we found it.

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Places to visit8 hours ago

The Highland Wildlife Park.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland's park at Kincraig, with Scotland's only polar bears, snow leopards, wolves and a drive-through reserve.

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From our guide8 hours ago

Falls of Foyers.

On the quiet south side of Loch Ness, the River Foyers plunges some 140 feet into a deep, wooded gorge on its way down to the loch. The falls were one of the sights of the Highlands long before the monster was, and in 1787 Robert Burns stood beside them and wrote a poem in pencil. A stepped path leads down through the trees from opposite the village tearoom to viewing platforms, where the white water shows against the dark rock. It is steep in places, so wear good shoes. Come after rain, when the falls are at their fullest.

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In Issue 13The magazine

Roasted Grapes, Burrata and Smoked Venison Crostini

Few people think to roast grapes. Twenty minutes in a hot oven and the sugars concentrate, the skins split, and you get sweet juice running out over whatever sits underneath. Here that's burrata and a slice of smoked venison. Sweet against salt, with crisp bread to hold the lot together. We've put t

Read it in Issue 13
Did you know7 hours ago

Fort George covers the ground of five football pitches.

Fort George was built after Culloden as a base for George II's army, on a point in the Moray Firth near Ardersier, east of Inverness. It took 22 years to build and it is still an army base today. The Highlanders' Museum is inside, and dolphins are seen off the point.

Find out more about Fort George
Places to visit7 hours ago

Cruise Loch Ness.

Cruises and speedboat trips on Loch Ness from Fort Augustus, run by a local family since 1968, from a gentle 50-minute cruise to a high-speed RIB ride.

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From the JournalThe journal7 hours ago

Behind Boath Cabin: An Interview with Andrew Cowderoy

Andrew Cowderoy spent the best part of a year searching Scotland for somewhere midge-free, near an airport and close to the sea. He found it in the Nairn Triangle, a pocket of the Moray Firth coast that locals reckon gets its own...

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From our guide7 hours ago

Culloden Visitor Centre.

On 16 April 1746, on this open moor east of Inverness, the last Jacobite Rising came to its end in less than an hour. Around 1,600 men died, most of them Jacobites. The National Trust for Scotland's visitor centre tells the story from both sides, with weapons and belongings from the battle, and a 360-degree theatre puts you in the middle of the fighting. Out on the moor, flags fly over the rough grass, and paths lead past memorial stones to the thatched Leanach Cottage. It is a quiet, moving place, so walk it slowly.

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From the magazine6 hours agoThe printed copy of Issue 10Issue 10Spring / Summer 2025

For years, the brown tourist signs in Inverness pointed visitors up to Inverness Castle, which was really the city's law courts.

To be fair, the grand castellated sandstone building high above the River Ness did look like an attraction. But all the tourists trudging up the hill found at the top was a viewpoint and a statue. It was not even a real castle. A string of forts had guarded the high ground since the Middle Ages. The present building went up in 1836 as a courthouse, in the Scottish baronial style that was then sweeping the country, and a prison was added in the 1840s. Now the courts have moved out, and the castle has been turned into a visitor attraction celebrating the spirit of the Highlands.

See Inverness Castle · Inverness-shire
Places to visit6 hours ago

Ben Alder.

One of the remotest Munros, 1,148 metres high above the western shore of Loch Ericht: a great plateau ringed by cliffs, reached only by long walks in.

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From our archive6 hours ago

Fort George, Inverness.

An 18th-century fortress near Ardersier, built after Culloden, with a rampart walk of more than a kilometre and the Highlanders' Museum. Photograph by Simon Hird.

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