Inverness
EUROPE · SIESTA SIDE
The small Highland capital on the River Ness, and the natural base for Loch Ness, Culloden and the roads north and east.
The plan
Loch Ness cruise
Boats from Dochgarroch Lock and Clansman Harbour out onto the loch and to Urquhart Castle. Around two hours.
📍 Map & photos · €€ · Website ↗
Urquhart Castle
A big medieval ruin on a promontory over Loch Ness, fought over through the Wars of Independence. Book online first.
📍 Map & photos · €€ · Website ↗
Culloden Battlefield
Where the 1745 Jacobite Rising ended on 16 April 1746 in under an hour. Visitor centre and a 360-degree battle film.
📍 Map & photos · €€ · Website ↗
Leakey's Bookshop and the Ness Islands
A huge second-hand bookshop in an old church with a wood stove, then footbridges out to the islands in the river.
📍 Map & photos · €
Chanonry Point dolphins
Half an hour out on the Black Isle. Bottlenose dolphins feed on the rising tide, often very close to shore.
📍 Map & photos · €
Getting there
Fly Inverness (INV)
Direct from London, Amsterdam and several UK cities. About twenty minutes from the airport into town.
Highland Main Line train
From Edinburgh or Glasgow in roughly three and a half hours, or overnight on the Caledonian Sleeper from London.
Drive the A9 north
Around three hours from Edinburgh. Average-speed cameras cover most of the route, so there is no point rushing.
When to go
Best time to go
May to September for daylight; late September for autumn colour.
Cheapest months
November to March. Cold, dark and genuinely cheap.
Priciest & busiest
July and August, when North Coast 500 traffic peaks.
If you've got one day
Morning
Culloden first thing. It lands a lot harder before the coach parties arrive.
Late morning
West along Loch Ness to Urquhart Castle on its rocky promontory.
Lunch
Drumnadrochit for a pub lunch, or back to the Inverness riverside.
Afternoon
A Loch Ness cruise, or Leakey's and the Ness Islands if it is wet.
Evening
Dinner in town, then a session bar on Church Street for live fiddle.
Nearby & day trips
Cairngorms National Park
An hour south to Aviemore: funicular railway, ospreys, reindeer and Speyside whisky country.
North Coast 500
Inverness is the start and finish of the 516-mile driving loop around the far north.
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