Inverness Anniversary Weekend

Today I’m bringing you some pictures from last weekend, our Inverness anniversary weekend, where Lynne and I took a short break to celebrate our second wedding anniversary.

Inverness was quite a quick weekend break (don’t they always seem that way?). But it was however just nice to spend that quality time away together.

What was quite funny was that we choose a weekend where whilst we were heading up through central Scotland to Inverness, everyone else was heading down down from there.

You see a huge number of people from Inverness were heading in the opposite direction from us to Glasgow.

They were going to the stadium beside where we live to see Inverness Caledonian Thistle football team play against Falkirk in the Scottish Cup final!

That did mean that there was a really excellent vibe in Inverness though prior to the match on Saturday afternoon.

The city was buzzing with excitement and anticipation of the outcome of this historic football match as Inverness would attempt to win the trophy for the first time in the clubs history.

How did they get on? Well, we’ll find out at the end of this post!

Inverness

Inverness is the fifth largest city in Scotland.

The name Inverness is actually from the Scottish Gaelic name “Inbhir Nis” meaning “Mouth of the River Ness”, where the city is actually situated.

That named river does of course flow from that exceptionally famous loch, Loch Ness, where the Loch Ness monster apparently currently resides!

The city is the most Northern city in Scotland, and in the United Kingdom, although the population is quite small, being around only 80,000.

It’s also an extremely historic city. It’s location providing an ideal stronghold and vantage point over the last 1500 years for various feuding clans.

The current Inverness Castle, seen above, was built in 1836 over the site of previous defensive structures.

It’s still used today but it houses Inverness Sherriff Court. So unfortunately it’s not open to the public.

Most of Saturday we spent the day walking up and down the banks of the River Ness and crossing over at various points.

Every now and then we saw glimpses of the sun, but mostly the overcast grey sky with an occasional shower of rain!

It was pretty cold too. “Baltic” as we call it in Scotland.

That necessitated much time being spent sheltering in eating and drinking establishments.

No complaints from me there about any of the excellent places we visited sampling home baking or local ale!

There’s plenty of Victorian structures like this bridge above about.

It’s known as Infirmary bridge. Built in 1879 it’s an iron suspension bridge.

I had to let Lynne go in front of me as it’s one of those that sways from side to side when someone walks over it. Which she doesn’t like!

I often talk moan about our weather.

But it really has rained a lot recently.

You can see that just from how much water is flowing down the River Ness.

The water is so close to the top of the river banks.

“Quick, just get a picture. The suns out!”

I’m pretty sure that’s what Lynne said as I was trying to get a good shot of this interesting statue.

These three statues once stood on the roof of a department store in Inverness High Street.

The store was demolished in the 1950s and the statues were bought by a collector on Orkney.

They were returned to the city following the death of that collector and Highland Council then had them installed on a plinth outside Ness Bank Church.

I have read that there are some great opportunities to catch salmon, grilse and sea trout on the River Ness.

We only saw one angler out this day fishing though.

I wonder if he caught anything?

Around the River Ness the vegetation is pretty lush.

It’s a haven for birds and other wildlife.

I did try to catch a photo of a Robin that was hopping about in front of us.

Unfortunately it turned round at the wrong time, so there wasn’t much point in showing you the picture, you’d probably just think it was a sparrow!

A lot of the path we walked on is actually the very end part of the Great Glen Way, a 73 mile  walk from Fort William to Inverness.

It’s one that we hope to do one day!

We could see what looked like another castle through the trees.

I wonder who lives here?

And how much it costs to live here! A lottery win needed I think!

At Whin Park Lynne tried her hand at the outdoor fitness equipment.

Apparently it was needing oiled that’s why she couldn’t work it.

There’s also a miniature train ride in the park. Unfortunately it wasn’t open when we were there.

Eventually having walked up and down the banks, we make our way back up to the castle.

You can see the view south here (above), of the bridges were we crossed.

Looking North from the castle, the River Ness eventually flows into the Moray Firth, which then flows into the North Sea.

The main shopping area starts on the right of the bridge you can see.

If you enjoyed reading this and seeing our holiday / short break pictures, you might also be interested in our trips to York or Glencoe.

Oh and great news (if you supported Inverness anyway) Inverness beat Falkirk 2-1 and won the Scottish Cup Final.

Needless to say we pretty much avoided the town on the Saturday night. I heard the celebrations by the Inverness fans went on well into the early hours!