Hotels in Inverness

Inverness is less a destination than the Highlands' front door, and it's honest to treat it that way: a compact, pleasant riverside town — castle above the Ness, cathedral opposite, good pubs with nightly folk music like Hootananny — that you'll use as a base.

Loch Ness lies to the south-west, with Urquhart Castle's ruins the best vantage; the Culloden battlefield, east of the city, is quietly devastating and superbly presented; and the Moray Firth's bottlenose dolphins show up near Chanonry Point at the right tide. The town itself is small enough to exhaust in a day, and summer coach traffic is constant. Stay along the river near the centre for the pubs and an easy walk to everything, or near the station if you're heading onward by rail to Kyle or the far north.