Inverness-shire guide — Hidden Scotland

The four parts of Inverness-shire

A map of Inverness-shire in relief, with its towns and villages and its four parts

Inverness-shire is the country of the Great Glen, the long, straight trench that runs across Scotland from the Moray Firth towards Fort William. Inverness sits at the top of it, where the River Ness meets the sea. It is a small and friendly city, with a red sandstone castle on its hill and the river running clear through the middle. South-west of the city, Loch Ness stretches away for twenty-three miles between steep, wooded hills, deep and dark and famous the world over for the creature said to live in it. Most people come for the loch and the monster, and they are right to. But there is a great deal more here once you turn off the main road.

Inverness, Culloden, Cawdor and Tomatin

Inverness and Culloden

Inverness is a small, friendly city on the River Ness, with the castle on its hill, Leakey's bookshop in an old church and the arcades of the Victorian Market. East of town, the battlefield at Culloden and the Clava Cairns lie close together, and Cawdor Castle and the distillery at Tomatin are an easy drive away.

A river reflects a white suspension footbridge, a clock tower and a tall spired church standing along the bank under a pale sky.

A large circular chambered cairn stands between two standing stones, bare winter trees framing a pink and grey dusk sky.

A tall brick railway viaduct with repeating arches catches warm evening light above an open field.

Beauly, Kirkhill, Struy, Cannich and Tomich

Beauly and Glen Affric

Beauly has its red sandstone priory and a square of cafés and shops, and from there the road follows the river up Strathglass to Struy and Cannich. Beyond lies Glen Affric, with old Caledonian pinewood, lochs under high hills and the waterfalls at Dog Falls and Plodda.

A river winds through a wooded valley towards distant hills, a stone building's roof visible among the trees in the foreground.

A river valley opens beyond a rocky, heather-covered foreground, forested slopes rising towards distant hills under a clear sky.

A ruined abbey with a pointed gable and arched doorway stands beside a tall cedar tree, gravestones scattered across the surrounding lawn.

Drumnadrochit, Invermoriston, Foyers and Dores

Drumnadrochit and Loch Ness

Drumnadrochit is where the Loch Ness story began, and Urquhart Castle stands on its headland just along the shore, with boats out onto the loch. Invermoriston has its falls and Telford's bridge, and across the water the quiet south side runs past the Falls of Foyers to the shingle beach at Dores.

A landscape view of the wooded gorge, the river breaking over flat rock and the stone summerhouse among the trees.

Looking down on a waterfall pouring white through a channel in grey rock into a dark pool, woods above.

A single-arched stone bridge over a clear river running between rocks, pines and birches on both banks.

Fort Augustus, Glenmoriston and Stratherrick

Fort Augustus and the south

Fort Augustus sits at the head of Loch Ness, cut in two by the Caledonian Canal and its flight of locks, with boats leaving for cruises on the loch. Above it, the Suidhe viewpoint looks out over the hills of Stratherrick, and the road west climbs through Glenmoriston towards Skye.

Fort Augustus at the head of Loch Ness, seen from the hillside through yellow gorse, forested slopes behind.

Water pours through open canal lock gates into a dark basin, white railings running along the lock walls and a lockkeeper's cottage and pine trees standing behind in mist.

Loch Ness under a grey sky, a stone jetty running out from the shore and wooded hills fading into the mist.

A misty loch stretches beside a gorse-covered hillside, golden flowers lining the rocky shore in the foreground.

In their words

“It’s quieter and much more secluded, mainly owing to the single track road which takes you on the scenic route from Inverness to Fort Augustus, or vice versa.”

Anna Low
Co-owner of Foyers Lodge, on the south side of Loch Ness

Read it in Meet Anna Low, co-owner of Foyers Lodge

Best known for.

Loch Ness and its monster come first, of course, and Urquhart Castle on its headland is the picture most people take home. The region is known too for Culloden, where the last Jacobite Rising ended in 1746, and for Thomas Telford's Caledonian Canal, which links the lochs of the Great Glen. Add the ancient pinewoods of Glen Affric, seaside golf at Nairn and an evening of traditional music in Inverness, and you have the heart of it.

More about Inverness-shire

West of Loch Ness, long glens run deep into the hills. Glen Affric is the best known, with its old Caledonian pines, its lochs and its waterfalls, while Strathglass and Glen Urquhart are quieter still. On the south side of the loch, a single-track road wanders through Foyers and over the high moor of Stratherrick, a world away from the coaches on the far shore. East of the city lie Culloden Moor, the Clava Cairns and the long beaches of Nairn, where the Moray Firth opens out and dolphins come in close off Fort George. Beauly, with its broad square and ruined priory, is a short drive west.

This is a region that rewards a few days rather than a quick stop on the way north. You can spend a morning at a 4,000-year-old burial ground, an afternoon on the battlefield where the last Jacobite Rising ended, and the evening at a fiddle session in a Church Street pub. Cruises leave from both ends of Loch Ness, canoes set off down the Great Glen, and the walking runs from riverside strolls in the city to long days in the pinewoods. Inverness has good restaurants, cosy cafés and the largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland. Come in autumn, when the birches in the glens turn gold.

What would you like to look at?

A large circular chambered cairn built from stacked stones sits among bare winter trees at dusk.

See and doCastles, cairns and the field of Culloden

A carved wooden picnic table and benches stand on a hilltop meadow overlooking a forested glen and hills under a clear sky.

Eat, drink and shopRiverside kitchens, bakeries and a whisky bar

Ardea through old birch trunks, its turf roof and railed deck mirrored in the pond below, ferns in front.

Where to stayLog cabins in the glen and cottages on Loch Ness

A crenellated sandstone castle stands on a wooded hill above a river, bare trees lining the bank in the foreground.

History and storiesClava's cairns, Culloden and Telford's canal

Looking down the glen in spring from the hill above a turf-roofed cabin, the river winding through fields.

ItinerariesDays we have driven, stop by stop

The sleeper drawn up at the platform, lit from the canopy above.

Getting hereThe trains, the roads and the sleeper

The Northern Lights green and pink over the dark glen, the cabins' lights among the trees below.

What is on in Inverness-shireSomething new from the region every day

What is on in Inverness-shire

Saturday the 17th of October.

Sunrise 07:56, sunset 18:09.

Things you might not know.

Deep in the vaults of Cawdor Castle stands the trunk of a long-dead tree, radiocarbon dated to around 1372, just as the legend of the castle's founding says.

From The Founding Tree of Cawdor Castle

The castle on the hill above the River Ness was built in 1836 as a courthouse and jail, and a £30 million renovation has turned it into the Inverness Castle Experience.

From The Heartbeat of the Highlands Revived

Urquhart Castle's headland on Loch Ness has been fortified since at least the 6th century, when St Columba is recorded visiting a powerful Pictish chief there.

From Urquhart Castle, The Guardian of the Great Glen

A misty loch stretches between wooded hills, the far shore fading into cloud.

Foyers Lodge is said to stand on the site of the General's Hut, where General Wade lived while his soldiers built the military road down the south side of Loch Ness from 1726.

From Meet Anna Low, co-owner of Foyers Lodge