Inverness

Old Inverness – The Victorian Market, Leakey's and the Castle

A day on foot, from Inverness station and back.

The route

Inverness grew up on the east bank of the River Ness, and its old town is still small enough to walk in a day from the station.

It starts under the sandstone arches of the Victorian Market, then follows Church Street, the town's oldest street, to Abertarff House of 1593. Then come the Old High Church on its mound above the river, where Jacobite prisoners were held after Culloden, and Leakey's Bookshop in an old Gaelic church beside it. A footbridge carries you over the Ness to St Andrew's Cathedral on the west bank, and the Ness Bridge brings you back to the Town House and the town's old luck stone. The museum tells the story of the Highlands before the day climbs to Inverness Castle, open to visitors at last, for the view down the river. It's about 2 miles, and the only real climb is the last, up the steps to the castle.

Before you go

Book Inverness Castle
It's the day's last stop, so book a timed slot for about 3pm (last entry is 4pm from October to March and 5pm from April to September).

The day

Inverness

A day on foot through old Inverness, from the Victorian Market along Church Street to the Old High Church, over the river to the cathedral and back up to the castle. It starts across the road from the station and ends on the castle hill, with the river below you.

The Victorian Market
An attraction
It's a 2-minute walk across Academy Street from the station to the Victorian Market. Look up as you go in under its three sandstone arches: a bull's head is carved over the middle one and a ram's head over each side. The market of 1870 burned down in 1889, all but this front, and was rebuilt bigger. Inside, arcades of small independent shops run through the block under red iron arches, and the old market hall and fish hall are now a food hall, with model trains running round above it again.
More about The Victorian Market
3 min on foot
Abertarff House
It's a 3-minute walk out by the market's Church Street door and along to Abertarff House, built in 1593 and the oldest house in Inverness. Look for its crow-stepped gables and the round stair tower on its front. The National Trust for Scotland looks after it, and its two downstairs rooms hold a free exhibition on Inverness in the 1600s, with staff and volunteers on hand to tell you more. Twenty minutes is plenty.
3 min on foot
Old High Church
An attraction
It's a 3-minute walk on up Church Street to the Old High Church, on the low mound above the river where the town has had its church since the Middle Ages. The lower part of its square clock tower is the oldest building in Inverness. After Culloden, Jacobite prisoners were held here, and the story goes that some were shot in the kirkyard, against a stone at its west end. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 11am, volunteers open the church itself, with its Willis organ and stained glass. Dunbar's Hospital of 1668 faces the gate across Church Street.
More about Old High Church
Leakey's Bookshop
An attraction
A minute on up Church Street, Leakey's Bookshop fills an old Gaelic church, Greyfriars Hall, with more than 100,000 second-hand books. Step inside and the shelves climb the walls to a gallery on iron columns, where the maps and prints are kept, and in winter a wood-burning stove warms the middle of the floor. Charles Leakey started the business in 1979, and it opens Tuesday to Saturday. Give it longer than you think.
More about Leakey's Bookshop
12 min on foot
Inverness Cathedral
An attraction
It's a 12-minute walk down Friar's Lane beside Leakey's to the river, then along Bank Street past the tall spire of the Free North Church, over the Greig Street footbridge and south along the west bank to St Andrew's Cathedral. It was built between 1866 and 1869 to designs by the architect Alexander Ross, and its two towers were meant to carry spires until the money ran out. Inside, look for the pillars of polished Peterhead granite, the angel font and the icons given by the Tsar of Russia. Visitors pay £6.
More about Inverness Cathedral
8 min on foot
The Town House and the Clach-na-Cudainn
It's an 8-minute walk back over the Ness Bridge and up Bridge Street, past the Town Steeple of 1791 on the corner, to the Town House, the Victorian Gothic town hall at the west end of the High Street. In front of it, set into the top step of the Mercat Cross, is the Clach-na-Cudainn, the stone of the tubs and the town's old luck stone. The story goes that women carrying water up from the river rested their tubs on it, and Clachnacuddin, the town's Highland League football club, takes its name from it.
Inverness Museum and Art Gallery
An attraction
It's a minute's walk up Castle Wynd to Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, free, and the place for the story the castle above only hints at. The galleries run from the rocks and wildlife of the Highlands through carved Pictish stones and the Jacobites to the town's own past, with Inverness silver and changing art shows upstairs. It's small enough to see in an hour, and there's a coffee shop.
More about Inverness Museum and Art Gallery
2 min on foot
Inverness Castle
An attraction
Inverness Castle is a 2-minute walk up the Castle Steps; with a pushchair, go round by Castle Street and View Place, about 5 minutes. The red sandstone court and jail of the 1830s and 1840s opened to visitors in December 2025. Inside, recorded storytellers' voices guide you through Highland stories in the old courthouse, music and 32 stitched panels of Highland life fill the old jail's rooms and cells, and the ticket includes the roof terrace. Outside, free to all, Flora MacDonald's statue looks out over the Ness, and the Castle Tavern faces the castle for a pint.
More about Inverness Castle

If it rains

Almost all of this day is under a roof already: the market's arcades, Abertarff House, Leakey's, the Old High on its open days, the cathedral, the museum and the castle. In the wet, give the museum and the castle longer, and keep the kirkyard and the Town House to a look on the way past. In wind or rain, cross to the cathedral by the Ness Bridge rather than the open Greig Street footbridge: from Leakey's go back down Church Street to the bridge, about the same 12 minutes, with less of the way along the water.