Highlights of Inverness - may surprise you

Today I went to the Inverness Castle Experience, a newly opened attraction. Actual Highlanders might find it a bit cheesey, with its 'spirit of the highlands' theme always signalled by iridescent deers passing through woods before dissolving into ? eternity, but there was a lot of actually powerful imagery. It was all done with point-contact audio in each room, which was surprisingly efficient.

No need to repeat well known Scottish history, but did you know that Josephine Tey [author of the novel voted the "greatest mystery novel of all time' - The Daughter of Time, about Richard III], was a pseudonym for Inverness-born Elizabeth Mackintosh?? Lots else but I'll have to wait for the pictures to remind me.

The highland clearances re-imaged

The Experience was just a 5 minute walk from my guest house - Bank House on Old Edinburgh Road. Funny what Google maps gives you - 1 Ness Walk is now a newish building called Ness Church, built in 1902. But in 1864 it was a house where Janet Bain died of smallpox. There was another fabulous Highlands Life Tapestry - quite as good as The Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels, see the post on it. And most surprising, there was an exhibition on Runrig - a well known Scottish band that I had not realised was born of the traditions of ceiliadh in the home where two brothers and a few friends starting out playing music, but then took their Gaelic language songs onto bigger stages. They were wildly popular, increasingly political and their music was really amazing. I must look on Spotify.

Calanais Stones, on the Isle of Lewis

Typical flashy installation, this one to reflect the community gathered around a fire telling stories

I might have mentioned that my room at Inverness felt a bit like a convent or monastery cell - very plain interior, grey carpet, wood panelling half way up the walls but the awful brown veneer type; a rather tiny desk and not in front of the window like Edinburgh. A plain but sturdy covered desk chair that would look fine in any doctor's waiting room.

My room; the desk is squeezed into the near left corner

In contrast to this perhaps dated decor, is a large TV, and a newly re-done bathroom which has the best wash-basin of the holiday, and one of the better showers, and a very handy window deep sill for putting non-wet items on. [The zoo room had disgusting water damage on the base of the bathroom door and also paint-bubbling water damage on the window sill. I could understand the door, as there was no bathroom drain, but why was there bubbling paint on the window sill? When I later put a towel on the sill to dry the 'smalls', it turned out a few hours later that the surface was quite damp, and perhaps other guests had not squeezed out as much water as I had! No direct sun on that window sill.]

I did think the view from the window was quite uninteresting on arrival, I could not see any gardens or attractive architecture, hoping always for something 1800ish. What a very high wall directly below my window. And what a nice fluttering Scottish flag.

'I must go find that church' - actually within the high walls, and not a church

That's a long wall I said to myself as I strolled around the local streets. A quite discreet sign revealed this explanation:

The truth revealed

I am staying next to His Majesties Prison Inverness and Portfield Prison which googling tells me is just a part of the bigger Inverness prison. They kept that one quiet on the hotel booking site. I am sure I would not have chosen this guest house if I knew it was overlooking a prison!

More Pipers chips for sale at the Inverness Bus Depot - cos you can never have too many flavours of Piper!