Things to do in Inverness
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Inverness
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best months overall: long days in May and June, golden light and thinner crowds in September.
Peak season: everything open and Highland Games and Belladrum, but highest prices and worst midges.
Shoulder: April waterfalls and lambs, October autumn colour and deer rut, better value.
Winter: about 7-hour days, lowest hotel prices outside Hogmanay, panto and cosy pubs.
What's on
- Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival Usually late July or early August
Family-friendly music festival at Belladrum Estate, Beauly. The city sells out.
- Inverness Highland Games July
Traditional heavy events, piping and dancing at Bught Park by the Botanic Gardens.
- Baxters Loch Ness Marathon & Festival of Running Usually the last Sunday of September
Marathon along Loch Ness finishing in Inverness, plus River Ness 10K and 5K.
- Northern Meeting Piping Competition Usually two days in early September
Prestigious solo piping gathering at Eden Court.
- Black Isle Calling Mid September each year
Smaller music festival rewarding a September trip.
- Inverness Fringe Late September into early October
Fringe festival in the Eden Court area in late September.
- Inverness Whisky Festival April
Whisky festival in the city's April calendar. Verify the current year's date.
Best things to do in Inverness
Inverness Castle Experience
New Highland gateway in the old castle, with storytelling galleries, gardens and a rooftop view over the Ness.
Culloden Battlefield
The sombre moor of the last pitched battle on British soil, with clan stones, cairn and a strong visitor centre.
Clava Cairns
Free Bronze Age passage graves ringed by standing stones in a quiet beech grove near Culloden.
Leakey's Bookshop
Scotland's largest second-hand bookshop, floor to ceiling stock around a wood-burning stove in a former church.
Ness Islands
Wooded islands mid-river on a flat, tree-lined loop walk along both banks of the Ness.
Eden Court Theatre
The Highlands' main arts venue, with two theatres and two cinemas on the river near the centre.
Victorian Market Inverness
Covered Victorian arcade of independents with a food hall of local counters for a cheap, flexible lunch.
Inverness Botanic Gardens
Quiet tropical and cactus glasshouses and formal gardens reached by the Ness Islands walk, with a good cafe.
Where to stay in Inverness
River Ness / City Centre
first trip, all-round base
Walk to every restaurant, Eden Court, the station and tour pick-ups, with river-facing rooms by the castle.
Crown
quiet, characterful base
Victorian villa streets with larger B&Bs and small luxury hotels, ten minutes uphill from the centre.
Ballifeary / Bught & Dalneigh
families, value, longer stays
B&B value west of the river by the Botanic Gardens and canal, with free parking and family rooms.
Outskirts & near-outskirts
drivers, golfers, country-house stays
Free parking, space, gardens and spas around Kingsmills and out of town, trading the walk home for quiet.
Think twice about
- Merkinch
Deprived residential area with almost no visitor accommodation or evening restaurants, and no visitor reason to base there.
- Longman / harbour industrial fringe
Retail parks and A9 frontage with noisy road-trip lodgings and no walkable evening life.
- Immediate station / Academy Street back lanes
Not a safety flag, a noise flag for light sleepers: late pubs and takeaways are boisterous on Friday and Saturday.
Best restaurants in Inverness
Rocpool Restaurant
Best all-round fine dining in Inverness, modern Scottish cooking on named Highland and coastal produce.
Chez Roux
Classical French technique on Highland produce in Rocpool Reserve's small resident-focused dining room.
Torrish Restaurant
Seasonal Highland dining and river-view afternoon tea at Ness Walk, open to non-residents.
Mustard Seed Restaurant
Consensus favourite in a converted church, with value set menus, mussels and a river terrace.
River House Restaurant
Small romantic seafood room on the river, strongest on oysters, scallops and mussels.
Fig & Thistle
Cosy owner-present neighbourhood bistro for haggis bon bons, Lewis salmon and sticky toffee pudding.
Hou Hou Mei
Dinner-only Asian fusion small plates, the welcome change of pace on night three of a Highland trip.
MacGregor's
Highland food, local beer and live traditional music in one sit-down pub on Academy Street.
Best coffee in Inverness
Perk Coffee & Doughnuts
Coffee and doughnuts singled out by local guides as a must-visit sweet stop in the centre.
Milk Bar
Coffee and treats with a river view, noted as a centre cafe pick.
Outdoor things to do in Inverness
Castle Stuart Golf Links
Modern links theatre on the Moray Firth, with infinity-edge greens and a white art-deco clubhouse.
Royal Dornoch Golf Club
The pilgrimage links north of Inverness, with raised greens, gorse and the famous bunkerless Foxy hole.
The Nairn Golf Club
Traditional championship links whose first seven holes run west along the sea towards Inverness.
Kings Golf Club Inverness
In-city parkland golf at local prices, with easier tee times and twilight rounds in June.
Inverness Golf Club
Established city parkland course where Inverness golfers play week to week.
Urquhart Castle
Ruined Grant Tower over black Loch Ness water, the loch's one image that lives up to itself.
Dores Beach
Free pebble beach on Loch Ness with the classic down-loch view, best at sunset.
Glen Affric
Ancient Caledonian pinewood, lochs and waymarked trails in a glen Highland guides call Scotland's most beautiful.
Best hotels in Inverness
Ness Walk
Five-star riverside house with walled gardens, Torrish restaurant and a secluded feel ten minutes from the centre.
Rocpool Reserve
Boutique luxury in a Georgian mansion, with individually designed rooms and Chez Roux dining.
Culloden House
Georgian country-house hotel in walled gardens where Bonnie Prince Charlie lodged before Culloden.
Bunchrew House Hotel
Romantic 17th-century manor on the Beauly Firth shore west of the city, best for couples with a car.
Glen Mhor Hotel
Riverside townhouse hotel and apartments with its own whisky bar and a luxury location at mid-range prices.
Kingsmills Hotel
Large family-run hotel with pool, spa, gardens and free parking, good for families and golf groups.
Glenmoriston Townhouse Hotel
Stylish riverside townhouse with piano bar and strong breakfast, for centre and river without luxury prices.
Heathmount Hotel
Small independently run Crown hotel with a bar and terrace popular with locals.
Is Inverness expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | £105 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | £185 a person |
| Splurge | £320 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Inverness Castle Experience: a few days ahead
- Eden Court Theatre: weeks ahead
- The Malt Room: a few days ahead
- Castle Stuart Golf Links: months ahead
- Royal Dornoch Golf Club: months ahead
- The Nairn Golf Club: months ahead
- Kings Golf Club Inverness: a few days ahead
- Inverness Golf Club: a few days ahead
- Hotels June to September need 3 to 6 months ahead, and Belladrum and marathon weekends sell out.
- Dinner reservations run 3 days to 2 weeks ahead in season, and kitchens often close by 9 to 9.30pm.
- Royal Dornoch and Castle Stuart tee times go months ahead, and Skye and Loch Ness tours cap out.
Is Inverness safe?
- Low violent-crime risk for visitors, with normal centre-at-night awareness around late pubs and the station.
- Highland weather changes within the hour: waterproof jacket, layers and grip footwear are essential.
- Midges bite May to September near still water and woods. Lochs are cold with steep drop-offs and no lifeguards.
Inverness travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Paying premium prices for Loch Ness monster kitsch instead of the loch, Urquhart and a cruise.
- Skye as a rushed day trip, and driving the A82 Loch Ness shore at midday in August.
- Chain shopping on the High Street and tartan-tat frontages near the station.
Getting around Inverness: public transport and more
- Walk the compact centre. Stagecoach buses cover Culloden, the airport corridor and Ballifeary.
- Trains run to Edinburgh and Glasgow in about 3.5 hours, Aberdeen in about 2 hours, and Kyle for Skye.
- Fill up with fuel in Inverness before Glen Affric, the south Loch Ness shore or the North Coast 500.
Who Inverness suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make Inverness your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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