Inverness, Scotland

In June of 2022, my family and I went on a two week trip to Scotland. We rented a car and stayed in several different towns, the second of which being Inverness.

Inverness Itinerary:

Day 3: (drive from Glasgow to Inverness, overnight in Inverness)

-Highland Folk Museum 

Day 4: (overnight in Inverness)

-Dunrobin Castle 

-City centre walking tour

-Leakey’s Bookstore

Day 5: (overnight in Inverness)

-Inverness Cathedral 

-Culloden Battlefield 

-Clava cairns 

Highland Folk Museum

It is about a 3 hour drive from Glasgow to Inverness. Along the way we stopped in the town of Newtonmore to visit the “Highland Folk Museum”. There were a lot of neat buildings from the early 1900s that were set up to portray the life in the highlands during that time. Some of the buildings include but were not limited to, a school house, a tweed shop, a blacksmith shop, a store, and a post office. We had a fun time getting to learn about some of the history of the Scottish Highlands as well as see how people lived.

City Centre

While we were in Inverness, we stayed in a town house very close to the city center, so we were able to do a good bit of walking around that town. One of the shops we visited was “Leakey’s Bookstore”. The bookstore was originally a church. From 1649-1954 it was “St. Mary’s Gaelic Church of Scotland”. The church which was rebuilt in the 1790s is the largest used bookstore in Scotland today. 

We also did a short walking tour around Inverness and got to visit Old High St. Stephen’s Church & graveyard. 

Dunrobin Castle

Dunrobin Castle is about an hour drive from Inverness, and definitely worth the drive. The castle was built over a span of many years, with many parts being added on by different people who owned it over the years. The castle is the largest house in the highlands, with 189 rooms. We also learned that “dun” means built on top of a hill, so any time you see a castle name in Scotland that starts with “dun” you know it was built on a hill. 

While at the castle, we got to see a bagpipe player as well as a falconry display. This was definitely one of my favorite castles we visited. In the gardens, there is also an early greek sacrificial alter. It was given as a gift to the Duchess of Sutherland in 1910.

Inverness Cathedral

We took a quick morning walk over to the Inverness Cathedral to look around. The church was absolutely beautiful! The construction of this Episcopal church was started in 1862.

Culloden Battlefield & Clava Cairns

Our only reason for visiting this battlefield was that my dad wanted to visit a battlefield while in Scotland. This is where the last battle of the Jacobite Rising took place in 1745. I personally expecting the visit to be a very boring experience, but was pleasantly surprised. The visitor centre as well as the free guided tour around the battlefield was very informative as well as enjoyable.

A few minute drive from the battlefield are the Clava Cairns. The cairns date back about 4,000 years ago and were used and reused as burial spots of sorts. We were able to walk into some of the cairns, which was really neat. It is a nice spot to walk around see the various cairns and have lunch at the available picnic tables. 

Restaurants

Just like in Glasgow, we had a kitchen at the place we were staying, so we didn’t eat out at breakfasts at all, but sometimes did for lunch or dinner. 

One of the restaurants we ate at was called “White House”. A small restaurant that had several different things including burgers and fish & chips. 

Another restaurant we went to was “Zizzi’s”, a popular italian restaurant in the middle of town. 

For dinner one night we went to “Lale Turkish Restaurant”

We also had gelato at “Miele’s Gelateria”. Their sorbet was quite good while the rest of my family enjoyed their gelato

After our time in Inverness, we drove to Isle of Skye, the next stop on our trip. My next post will be about our time there. .