Inverness, city 17/69 in the UK Cityscapes Project

Inverness dear reader, the northern most city in the UK, as the landlord of my B&B called it "A totie city" I love that word totie, and I have to make the following announcement, I have left a piece of my heart in Inverness and intend to go back and reclaim it as soon as I can get back there.

What can I tell you about Inverness, well apart from the fact that it's one of the smaller cities with a population of over 62,000 at the time of the census in 2011, it's also the main campus for the university of the Highlands and Islands with 8,500 students, that's a good night out that is ;)

Inverness was recently voted as the second happiest place to live in the whole of the UK (Harrogate came first) and I can absolutely see why, the rolling hills and sweeping vistas, the voluminous lochs and everywhere a different shade of emerald, when cloudy the Highlands are dark and brooding and when sunny they're the most beautiful place on the whole of the earth.  The staggering beauty of the rocks and crags provide the perfect place for relaxation and reflection.

On Sunday I went on a Jacobite cruise on loch ness which went passed Urquhart castle, a 3 hour trip on the mystical waters of loch ness, would a monster be found?  Well not really but I certainly had time to reflect on my journeys so far.

I stayed at the Melrose Villa and my host and landlord Kenny could not have been nicer, I loved the Highland decor, including the stags head on the wall of the breakfast room, my wee room (and it was totie) was perfect for just me and my backpack.

The images, there are many but the staggeringly breathtaking scenery needs to be shared with the masses, if you haven't visited this charming city please do yourself a favour and get there as quickly as you can, to embrace the splendour and the quiet, the sunrises and the sunsets, the 16 hours of sunlight in the summer months, there really isn't a more splendid city you'll ever visit in Scotland.

The photos  - 

and that was Inverness, beautiful city in the Highlands of Scotland and my favourite city so far, in my next post I'll be reviewing all 7 of the Scottish cities and giving you the low down on my high and low points throughout the first part of the project as I've now completed Scotland and also look out for city 18, Aberdeen coming up soon on the blog, there couldn't be more of a contrast between 2 cities that that of Aberdeen and Inverness.