Regal Princess next docked at Invergordon in Scotland and there would be time for a little walk around there later in the day – which you can read about in the next post – but with it being not that large we decided instead to take a relatively low-cost cruise excursion on a bus to drop us off in nearby Inverness for a few hours instead where we would have more chance of seeing sights of interest to us. The “free time in some place” tours offered when ships aren’t really that close to anything that would ordinarily attract tourists are never as cheap as making your own way around but there’s a sense of security there that’s priceless, and if the cost isn’t too extortionate then we find they’re a good option.
Our bus ride was pleasant enough with some scenic views of the Scottish landscape and it wasn’t too long before we were dropped off outside Inverness Cathedral where we’d need to return to later in the day for the return trip to the cruise ship. The cathedral is a late nineteenth century building in the Gothic Revival style popular in Victorian Britain and the reason for the square towers rather than spires as you might expect is simply that they ran out of money to complete it. Some lovely decorative work, though.
Across the water of the River Ness from where the bus had dropped us we could see Inverness Castle. It’s another nineteenth century construction in similar red brick to the cathedral although it is situated on the site of former fortresses going back to at least the eleventh century. We’d wanted to visit it because we like castles anyway but also because it’s one of the settings used in Shakespeare’s Macbeth so it would have been the second such castle we’d have looked around after our trip to Kronborg in 2017. However, the castle was still undergoing renovation work at the time of our trip.
We didn’t have much of a plan for Inverness but one possibility we’d considered if the weather was good enough was doing some of the Ness Walk, an easy riverside walk up and down the banks of the River Ness which flowed through the city. The weather was gorgeous so that’s how we started our time in Inverness. Fresh air, pleasing views. Lovely.
There were a couple of little points of interest very close to one another along the walk south on the west side of the river. The first of these was a wooden dog sculpture with the name “Breac“, the Gaelic word for speckled trout. It stood very close to a curving concrete viewing point jutting out over part of the water, named the Gathering Point. It turns out that the former is a protest response to the latter with some locals finding the concrete construction an eyesore and wanting to put something pretty up instead. I’m not a dog person but I do like modernist and brutalist construction so that puts me firmly in opposition to the locals here but it’s nice that there’s place for both types of artistry to co-exist.
Our walk brought us to the Ness Islands at which we crossed to them and walked through to the other side of the river using some footbridges.
We quite enjoyed spotting some nicely-sculpted benches of all different designs in the quiet, wooded area of the islands and we even sat down for a rest for a bit and to enjoy the sound of the water trickling past nearby. A beautifully tranquil spot in Inverness.
We passed a couple of points of interest as we made our way northwards now on the eastern side of the River Ness where the Ness Walk apparently becomes Ladies Walk for some reason.
The first of these was the Forbes Fountain, classified as a listed building. This functional granite sculpture (dating from the late nineteenth century again) was once situated in the city centre where it formed a central focus point although was not universally loved by some who felt it got in the way of public events. It was moved to its current location during some road-widening scheme in the 1950s during which time the tall spire that had once adorned it was damaged beyond repair and removed.
A little further along the riverside walk we reached the bronze and red and yellow sandstone war memorial, erected originally in 1922 to commemorate those lost in World War I but later rededicated to include those from later conflicts.
The statues of Faith, Hope, and Charity below used to grace the top of a store in the city centre but fell into private ownership hands when that building was demolished, only returning to public view to be mounted together along the bank of the River Ness in 2011.
With our Ness Walk concluded we next headed into the more commercial part of the centre of Inverness although it wasn’t shopping on our mind but rather a visit to the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. It wasn’t a very large museum but that suited us fine, and some of the pieces on display were very good indeed.
Back outside in Inverness we had one more place we wanted to visit before heading back and so we wound our way through the streets, past a few sculptures, and found the Black Isle Bar where we took the weight off our feet then put the weight on our waists with some pizza and a few of the locally-brewed beers. Great location, great food and drink.
And that brought our time in Inverness to a conclusion, leaving just a short walk back to the Ness Bridge and a casual stroll to the cathedral again to wait for the bus to return.
We had lovely weather for our somewhat casual few hours in Inverness but there was plenty there to see and it’s one of those cities that just left us feeling that yes, this is the sort of place we could live in. We’d not hesitate to return.
In the next post in this British Isles cruise series we return to Invergordon and I head off alone just to take some photos of the place along with its street art before returning to the ship and sailing off towards the penultimate port of call.