Inverness has a population of 47,000 – roughly the same as Colchester or Bognor Regis – and yet it is the capital of the Highlands: the largest settlement in a region of 26,484 km², an area larger than Wales, a landscape of mountains (the Cairngorms, the Monadhliath, and the ridges of Glen Affric), of lochs (Ness – the most famous, the largest by volume of freshwater in the British Isles, containing more water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined – and the quieter waters of Loch Duntelchaig, Loch Moy, and the Caledonian Canal), and of a history that spans the Pictish stones (the carved symbols of a people who inhabited the Highlands for 600 years before the Scots arrived from Ireland, their language – Pictish – lost, their stones the only voice they left behind), the Jacobite Risings (the battle of Culloden, 1746 – the last pitched battle on British soil, the end of the Highland clan system, fought on a moor 5 miles east of Inverness), and the modern kilt-and-whisky tourism that is simultaneously a caricature and a genuine expression of a living culture. Here are five relaxed, laid-back, and historical reasons to visit Inverness.

1. Loch Ness – The Monster and the Landscape

The Loch Ness Monster – “Nessie” – is the most famous cryptid in the world, a creature whose existence has been claimed, debunked, and claimed again since the first modern sighting in 1933 (the photograph – the “Surgeon’s Photograph” – was a hoax, a toy submarine with a plastic head, but the legend endures because the alternative – that a 36-km-long, 230-metre-deep body of water, the largest in the British Isles, contains nothing more mysterious than eels and the imagination of millions – is unsatisfying). The Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit (~£9, an updated exhibition that tells the story of the monster, the geology, and the search – much improved from the tired display of the past) and the boat trips (Jacobite Cruises – the essential Loch Ness experience. The sonar, the commentary, and the view of the Urquhart Castle ruins from the water. ~£19. Allow 1 hour) are the monster-focused attractions. But Loch Ness is far more beautiful than its monster. The drive along the southern shore (the B852 from Fort Augustus to Dores – the narrower, quieter, and much more beautiful road) is one of the finest short drives in the Highlands: the water, the trees, the mountains reflected in the loch, and the village of Dores (the Dores Inn – the best pub on Loch Ness: the beer garden on the shingle beach, a pint of the Cairngorm Brewery’s Trade Winds, and the view of the loch stretching into the distance. The “Nessie Hunter” – Steve Feltham, who has lived in a former mobile library on the Dores beach since 1991, watching for the monster – is a genuine and charming Highland character. Stop and say hello)

2. Culloden Battlefield – The Most Moving Field in Scotland

On the 16th of April 1746, 5,000 Jacobite soldiers – mostly Highland clansmen, exhausted, hungry, and poorly armed – were butchered by 9,000 government troops on the moor of Culloden. The battle lasted less than an hour. Approximately 1,500–2,000 Jacobites were killed; the government lost 50 men. Culloden was the end of the Jacobite cause (the attempt to restore the Stuart monarchy, embodied by Bonnie Prince Charlie – Charles Edward Stuart – who fled the field and died an alcoholic in Rome 42 years later), the end of the Highland clan system (the government outlawed the wearing of tartan, the carrying of weapons, and the traditional clan structure – the Highland Clearances, the forced emigration that emptied the glens, followed within a generation), and the last battle fought on the soil of Great Britain. The battlefield – the graves of the clans (each marked by a simple stone: “Clan Cameron,” “Clan Mackintosh,” “Clan Fraser,” the names of the dead clustered in heather-covered mounds), the silence, and the visitor centre (one of the best battlefield museums in the UK – the immersive film, the artefacts – the broadswords, the targes, the musket balls – and the quiet, devastating power of the story. Entry: ~£12. Allow 2 hours) – is one of the most moving historical sites in the British Isles. Walk the battlefield (the paths are free – the visitor centre is paid) and stand on the spot where 1,500 men died for a cause that was already lost. More UK history →

3. The Caledonian Canal – A Walk Along the Great Glen

The Caledonian Canal connects Inverness to Fort William (60 miles, the engineering masterpiece of Thomas Telford, 1803–1822), and the towpath from Inverness to Loch Ness (7 miles, the first section of the Great Glen Way) is one of the most beautiful and accessible walks in the Highlands: the canal (the boats, the locks, the herons standing motionless on the banks), the River Ness (the Ness Islands – a string of wooded islands connected by footbridges, the most beautiful walk in Inverness city itself), and the gradual transition from the urban to the wild as the path leaves the city and enters the Great Glen. The walk to Dochgarroch (the first loch on the canal, 5 miles from Inverness – the pub, the boats, and the view of the loch and the mountains) is flat, easy, and suitable for a morning or an afternoon. Hire a bicycle from Ticket to Ride in Inverness (~£20/day) and cycle the full section to Fort Augustus (30 miles – the Caledonian Canal towpath, the Loch Ness shore, and the most beautiful day’s cycling in the Highlands)

4. The Clava Cairns – 4,000 Years of Silence

Four kilometres east of Culloden, the Clava Cairns (Balnuaran of Clava) are a group of three Bronze Age burial cairns, surrounded by standing stones, built approximately 4,000 years ago – a thousand years before the Pyramids of Giza – by a people who left no written records, no names, and nothing but the stones, aligned to the midwinter sunset, the light falling precisely on the entrance to the central cairn on the shortest day of the year. The cairns are small, quiet, and free. The atmosphere – the Scots pines, the silence, and the sense of deep time – is profound. The Clava Cairns are thought to have inspired the stones in the Outlander novels (the “Craigh na Dun” of the books – the fictional standing stones that transport the protagonist back to the 18th century), and the site now attracts a steady stream of Outlander fans, but the real magic is older, stranger, and quieter than a television show. Go in the early morning, before the tours arrive, and stand among the stones alone

5. The Inverness Pub and the Highland Whisky

Inverness has no distilleries (the nearest – Tomatin, Glen Ord, and the Speyside distilleries – are 30–40 minutes to the south and east), but it has the best whisky bar in the Highlands: the Malt Room (a tiny, wood-panelled bar on Church Street, 220 whiskies, the knowledgeable staff, and the atmosphere of a place that takes its whisky seriously without taking itself seriously. Essential experience: a tasting flight – three whiskies, chosen to demonstrate the range of Highland and Speyside malts: the light, the smoky, the sherried. ~£15–25). The Castle Tavern (the oldest pub in Inverness, the fireplace, the local ales, and the view of Inverness Castle – the sandstone Victorian castle on the hill, a courthouse since 1835, not the medieval fortress of Macbeth, though the legend persists) is the essential Inverness pub. And the Black Isle Bar (the organic brewery across the bridge in Munlochy, the pizzas, and the best range of local beers in the city – the Blonde, the Porter, and the seasonal specials) rounds out the essential Inverness pub crawl