Things to do in Inverness-shire

Achmelvich Beach in the Assynt district of northwest Sutherland is one of the most beautiful small beaches in Scotland, a crescent of brilliant white shell-sand enclosed between rocky headlands of ancient Lewisian gneiss above clear turquoise water that creates a landscape of almost improbable beauty in the latitude of the far north of Scotland. The combination of the beach, the surrounding Assynt landscape of mountains, lochs and gneiss moorland and the complete absence of commercial development makes Achmelvich one of the finest unspoiled beach experiences available in Britain. The sand of Achmelvich is composed largely of crushed shell and coral fragments giving it the brilliant white colour and fine texture characteristic of the best Hebridean and northwest Sutherland beaches. The colour of the water over this pale sand in clear conditions produces the turquoise hues that make photographs of Achmelvich appear improbably tropical for a beach in the extreme north of Scotland. The beach faces west and the evening light in the long summer evenings of this latitude creates a golden quality on the sand and water that is among the finest natural light effects available at any British beach. The surrounding Assynt landscape provides walking of exceptional quality, the mountains of Suilven, Quinag and Canisp rising from the moorland above the coast as distinctive sandstone towers visible from the beach, and the loch-scattered moorland between the beach and the mountains one of the most primordially ancient landscapes in Europe.

Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve in Wester Ross was established in 1951 as the first national nature reserve in Britain, a designation that recognised both the exceptional natural quality of the mountain, loch and woodland landscape and the importance of protecting the ancient Caledonian pine forest remnants that survive at the foot of the mountain on the shores of Loch Maree. The reserve covers approximately 4,800 hectares of some of the most scenically dramatic and ecologically important mountain country in the northwest Highlands. The mountain itself, whose name means file or ridge in Gaelic and refers to the serrated quartzite ridge that crowns the massif, is composed of some of the oldest rocks in Britain, Torridonian sandstone and ancient Lewisian gneiss overlaid by pale Cambrian quartzite that gives the upper slopes their distinctive white scree character. The combination of these ancient geological materials with the dramatic erosional forms of the glaciated Highland landscape produces a mountain environment of raw geological power that feels genuinely ancient in a way that the younger rocks of most British mountains do not. The Caledonian pinewood remnants at the foot of the mountain on the shores of Loch Maree are among the finest surviving fragments of the ancient forest that once covered much of the Scottish Highlands. These woods, dominated by Scots pine with juniper, birch and rowan, support red squirrel, pine marten, crossbill and a range of woodland invertebrates and fungi associated with ancient forest habitats that are increasingly rare across the British Isles. A programme of deer management and natural regeneration is gradually expanding the pinewood area, one of the conservation successes of the reserve. Two waymarked trail networks provide access to the reserve at different levels of ability, with the Mountain Trail providing a challenging ascent to the quartzite ridge and the Woodland Trail a gentler exploration of the lochside pinewoods and their wildlife.

Cape Wrath is the most northwesterly point of mainland Britain, a dramatic promontory of Lewisian gneiss 100 metres above the Atlantic in the far northwest corner of Sutherland whose combination of the extreme remoteness, the great sea cliffs of Clo Mor immediately to the east and the extraordinary quality of the light and landscape create one of the most powerful and most sought-after extremity destinations available on the British mainland. The cape is accessible only by the Cape Wrath ferry across the Kyle of Durness and a minibus service across the military range that occupies much of the Parph, the remote peninsula on which the cape sits. The sea cliffs of Clo Mor immediately east of the lighthouse are the highest sea cliffs on the British mainland, rising approximately 281 metres from the sea in a sheer face that supports one of the largest seabird colonies on the Scottish north coast. Puffins, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and kittiwakes nest in enormous numbers on the cliff ledges, and the combination of the scale of the cliffs, the bird numbers and the complete remoteness of the site creates a wildlife experience unlike anything available at more accessible Scottish seabird colonies. The lighthouse at the cape, built in 1828 by Robert Stevenson, is one of the most remote staffed lighthouses on the Scottish coast and the road from the ferry provides a traverse of the Parph that passes through one of the most remote and least visited landscapes on the British mainland, the bogland and gneiss moorland of the far northwest providing an experience of primordial emptiness that rewards the considerable effort of getting there.

Eilean Donan Castle stands on a small tidal island at the junction of three sea lochs in the western Highlands of Scotland, its silhouette of towers and battlements reflected in the dark water below and backed by the mountains of Kintail creating what has become the most photographed castle scene in Scotland and one of the most reproduced images of the country worldwide. The castle was originally built in the thirteenth century, destroyed by government forces in 1719 during a Jacobite rising, and meticulously rebuilt between 1912 and 1932 by Lieutenant Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap, creating the building that has become through its near-universal presence in Scottish tourism imagery virtually synonymous with the Highlands themselves. The setting at the meeting of Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh is exceptional even by the standards of the western Highland coast. The three lochs converging here create a wide expanse of water in every direction, the mountains rising steeply from the water's edge and the evening light catching the castle walls in ways that explain the compulsion to photograph this scene that has afflicted visitors since photography became widely accessible. The causeway connecting the island to the mainland allows visitors to walk around the building and appreciate the relationship between the architecture and the water from every angle. The castle is associated with the Clan Macrae, who served as hereditary constables to the Mackenzie lords of Kintail, and the Macrae-Gilstrap restoration was both a personal tribute to his clan's history and a practical act of preservation. The interior was rebuilt with careful attention to historical accuracy and houses a collection of clan-related artefacts, Jacobite memorabilia and historical displays. The memorial to Macrae soldiers who died in the First World War gives the restoration a personal and communal dimension beyond architectural preservation. The road through Kintail toward the Five Sisters and over the Ratagan Pass provides some of the finest Highland scenery accessible by car in Scotland.

The Fairy Pools at Glenbrittle on the Isle of Skye are among the most beautiful natural features on an island already exceptional for the quality of its scenery, a series of crystal-clear mountain pools and waterfalls on a stream descending from the Black Cuillin mountains whose extraordinary blue-green water colour, resulting from the clarity of the flow over pale quartzite and gabbro, has made them one of the most photographed locations in Scotland. The setting below the dark, serrated ridge of the Cuillin adds drama and scale to what would already be a compelling natural feature. The walk from the car park at Glenbrittle follows the stream upward through a succession of pools and cascades over approximately two kilometres, each pool having its own character and depth. The lower pools are the largest and most accessible, with some deep enough for wild swimming that attracts visitors willing to enter water temperatures rarely exceeding ten degrees even in midsummer. The experience of swimming in this clarity of water with the Cuillin rising steeply behind is one of the most elemental available in Scotland, the combination of mountain, rock and cold clear water creating a landscape encounter of considerable intensity. The underwater arch connecting two of the lower pools is a particular feature, and at low water flows it is possible to swim through from one pool to the next, a passage that rewards the cold and the commitment with a perspective on the rock formations quite unlike the view from above. The Black Cuillin, visible throughout the walk, provide the most technically demanding mountain terrain in Britain and contrast strikingly with the accessible magic of the pools below them. The combination of the Fairy Pools walk with a drive through Glen Brittle and views over the sea toward the Outer Hebrides makes this one of the most rewarding short outings on Skye.

The Falls of Measach in the Corrieshalloch Gorge near Braemore Junction in Ross-shire are the finest waterfall in Scotland, a spectacular cascade of approximately 45 metres where the River Droma plunges into one of the deepest and most dramatically formed river gorges in Scotland in a display of geological and hydrological power that has made it one of the most visited natural features in the northwest Highlands. The National Trust for Scotland manages the gorge and the combination of the falls, the suspension bridge across the gorge and the extraordinary depth of the canyon creates a natural heritage experience of exceptional drama. The Corrieshalloch Gorge is a box canyon cut by glacial meltwater at the end of the last Ice Age approximately 10,000 years ago, the violent meltwater erosion cutting down through the ancient Lewisian and Torridonian rocks of the Ross-shire landscape in a period of intense geological activity. The gorge is approximately one kilometre long and its vertical walls drop approximately sixty metres to the river below in a narrow slot of considerable dramatic effect. The suspension bridge across the gorge near the falls provides the finest view of the waterfall and the combination of the bridge, the falls and the depth of the gorge creates a memorable and slightly vertiginous experience. The Falls of Measach are designated as a National Nature Reserve for the remarkable plant communities that colonise the shaded, humid walls of the gorge, the rare filmy ferns and the diverse mosses and liverworts creating a botanical interest that complements the dramatic geological and hydrological character of the site.

Handa Island off the northwest Sutherland coast near Scourie is one of the finest seabird colonies in Britain, a small uninhabited island accessible by ferry from Tarbet whose combination of the great sandstone cliffs on its northern and western faces and the extraordinary concentration of breeding seabirds including approximately 200,000 individuals of various species creates one of the most impressive wildlife watching experiences available in Scotland. The Scottish Wildlife Trust manages the island as a wildlife reserve. The great stack of Handa, a detached column of Torridonian sandstone separated from the island's northern cliff by a narrow channel, supports one of the densest concentrations of breeding guillemots in Britain, with approximately 100,000 birds occupying every available ledge in a mass of activity, noise and movement that is one of the most impressive wildlife spectacles in the British Isles. Razorbills, kittiwakes, fulmars, great skuas and puffins also breed on the island in considerable numbers. The walk around the island perimeter, a circuit of approximately six kilometres, provides access to all sections of the cliff colony and includes the most dramatic viewpoints over the stack from the cliff edge above. The combination of the stack scenery, the bird numbers and the completely unspoiled island landscape of heather moorland, lochs and Torridonian sandstone geology creates a wildlife island experience of exceptional quality that rewards the effort of the ferry crossing.

Inverewe Garden near Poolewe in Wester Ross is the most extraordinary horticultural achievement in Scotland, a garden of over 2,500 plant species created by Osgood Mackenzie from 1862 onward on a bare peninsula of Torridonian sandstone on the shores of Loch Ewe, the warming influence of the North Atlantic Drift allowing the cultivation in the open air of plants from the Himalayas, South America, the Southern Ocean islands and New Zealand that could not survive the Scottish climate without the exceptional shelter and warmth provided by this specific location at a latitude comparable to Moscow and Labrador. The National Trust for Scotland manages the garden. Mackenzie's achievement was to shelter the exposed and windswept peninsula from the Atlantic gales using a windbreak of Scots pine and other trees, then to create a series of gardens within the shelter of the windbreak that exploited the warmth of the Gulf Stream current to support an extraordinary collection of plants from the world's temperate and subtropical zones. The planting developed over sixty years by Mackenzie and subsequently expanded by his daughter Lady Mairi Sawyer into the collection of approximately 2,500 species visible today. The garden's position on the shores of Loch Ewe provides a magnificent backdrop of sea and mountain against which the exotic planting creates a visual contrast of remarkable quality. The Himalayan plants growing on the shore of a Scottish sea loch, with the mountains of Wester Ross visible across the water, create an experience of horticultural wonder available nowhere else in Scotland.

The Isle of Skye is the largest and most visited of the Inner Hebrides, a dramatic and scenically extraordinary island off the northwest coast of Scotland whose combination of the Black Cuillin mountains, the Trotternish Peninsula's geological features, picturesque fishing harbours and a strong Gaelic cultural tradition have made it one of the most celebrated tourist destinations in Britain. The island is connected to the mainland by the Skye Bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh, making it accessible year-round, and the volume of visitors it receives has grown substantially in recent years as social media has circulated images of its most dramatic features worldwide. The Black Cuillin, the dark gabbro mountain range in the south of the island, is the most technically demanding mountain terrain in Britain, its jagged ridgeline and sheer rock faces providing the only true alpine ridge scrambling available in the British Isles and attracting mountaineers from across the world. The traverse of the complete Cuillin Ridge, which has over thirty Munros and tops, is the most serious and committing multi-day mountain challenge in Britain and is completed in a single continuous traverse only by very experienced parties in settled weather. For the majority of visitors the mountains provide exceptional walking on their lower approaches and extraordinary visual drama from the roads, beaches and villages below. The Trotternish Peninsula in the north of the island contains a series of geological features produced by the ongoing collapse and slipping of the great lava flows that cap the peninsula. The Old Man of Storr, the Quiraing and the Kilt Rock are among the most dramatic results of this process, their towers, pinnacles and tilted rock formations creating a landscape of surreal grandeur unlike anything elsewhere in Britain. Portree, the island's capital, provides a charming harbour setting and a good range of restaurants and accommodation, and the Skye Bridge approach from the mainland through Glen Shiel and over the Ratagan Pass is one of the finest drives in Scotland.

The Old Man of Storr is the most distinctive and most celebrated rocky pinnacle on the Isle of Skye, a 50-metre column of basalt standing on the Trotternish escarpment above Portree whose unusual profile, created by a massive ancient landslide that left the pinnacle and its companions isolated on the hillside below the main cliff face, has made it one of the iconic images of the Hebrides and one of the most visited natural features in Scotland. The walk from the car park below to the pinnacles takes approximately one hour and provides increasingly dramatic views of the stack and the surrounding Trotternish landscape. The geological history of the Old Man of Storr explains its unusual isolated position. The Trotternish escarpment is the largest landslide complex in Britain, created when the heavy basalt rock that caps the peninsula slid westward over the softer underlying sedimentary rocks in a series of catastrophic slips that have created the extraordinary landscape of isolated pinnacles, tilted blocks and jumbled rock scenery visible across the northern section of the Trotternish ridge. The Old Man and its companions are the most impressive and most photographed remnants of this process. The views from the vicinity of the Old Man encompass Portree Harbour and the Portree Bay below, the Sound of Raasay and the island of Raasay itself, the mainland Hills of Torridon visible across the Minch and the Cuillin ridgeline to the south, a panorama that captures the full extent of the extraordinary Skye landscape from a single vantage point.

The Quiraing is the finest section of the Trotternish landslide landscape on the northern Isle of Skye, a complex of tilted rock pinnacles, grassy terraces and dramatic basalt cliffs created by the same geological instability that produced the Old Man of Storr further south, but at the Quiraing reaching a scale and complexity of landscape quite unlike anything else available in Britain. The combination of the Table, a great flat-topped grassy platform visible from the road below, the Needle pinnacle, the Prison and the extraordinary views from the ridge walk above creates one of the most remarkable and most otherworldly landscape experiences in the Hebrides. The landslide that created the Quiraing is still active, the instability of the Jurassic rocks beneath the basalt cap allowing continued movement that has disrupted the road across the ridge at this point on multiple occasions. The road from Staffin to Uig that crosses the ridge provides a dramatic view of the Quiraing landscape and the starting point for the walks into the interior of the landslide complex. The walk from the car park on the ridge road into the Quiraing provides access to the most dramatic features, the path threading between the tilted rock masses and ascending to the Table with its surprising hidden grassland enclosed between the pinnacles above. The views from the ridge above the Quiraing across the Sound of Raasay to the mainland and north across the Minch toward the Outer Hebrides represent some of the finest coastal mountain panoramas available in Scotland.

Loch Ness in the Great Glen of the Scottish Highlands is the most famous lake in the world, its extraordinary dimensions, the depth and darkness of its waters and the enduring legend of the Loch Ness Monster combining to create a destination that draws visitors from every country on Earth. The loch is 37 kilometres long, over 2 kilometres wide in places and reaches a maximum depth of 227 metres, making it the largest freshwater body in Britain by volume and one of the deepest lakes in Europe. The dark colour of the water, stained by peat washed from the surrounding moorland, reduces visibility to a few metres below the surface and creates conditions that have sustained the monster legend with remarkable persistence. The first modern sighting of a large unknown creature in the loch was reported in 1933 and the story spread rapidly around the world, generating a sustained media interest that has never entirely faded. Hundreds of subsequent sightings, sonar surveys, underwater photography expeditions and scientific investigations have failed either to confirm or conclusively disprove the existence of a large unknown animal in the loch, and the mystery has proved remarkably durable given the resources applied to resolving it. Environmental DNA studies of the loch conducted in 2018 found no evidence for a large reptile but did suggest the presence of large quantities of eel DNA, which has not resolved the debate to anyone's full satisfaction. The Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition at Drumnadrochit provides a thorough and reasonably sceptical examination of the legend and the scientific evidence, and the ruins of Urquhart Castle on a promontory above the loch provide one of the finest viewpoints over the water and one of the most historically significant medieval fortifications in the Highlands. The Great Glen Way long-distance walking route follows the loch shore for much of its length, providing excellent access to the loch landscape.

Neist Point is the most westerly point of the Isle of Skye, a dramatic basalt headland jutting into the Atlantic from the Duirinish Peninsula with a lighthouse at its tip and cliff scenery of exceptional quality on all sides. The combination of the dramatic volcanic geology, the lighthouse approach descending steeply from the cliff top to the headland below, the views across the Minch toward the Outer Hebrides and the wildlife that gathers in the surrounding waters makes Neist Point one of the most rewarding and most photographed viewpoints on Skye. The walk from the car park at the top of the cliff to the lighthouse is one of the finest short walks on Skye, descending steeply on a clear path to the broad lower headland and then following the cliff edge to the lighthouse buildings. The basalt geology of the headland is displayed clearly in the cliff faces, with the characteristic hexagonal column jointing of cooled basalt visible in sections and the dramatic black rock contrasting with the green of the cliff-top grass and the deep blue of the Atlantic when the sky is clear. The waters around Neist Point are excellent for whale and dolphin watching. Minke whale, common dolphin and harbour porpoise are regularly seen from the lighthouse headland and from the clifftops, and less frequently orca and other large cetaceans are reported in these waters. The combination of the Atlantic swell, the cold nutrient-rich water and the concentrations of fish that gather in the tidal races around the headland attract marine mammals reliably enough that a patient vigil from the cliff edge is frequently rewarded. The sunsets from Neist Point, with the sky over the Outer Hebrides turning red and orange above the Atlantic horizon, are among the most celebrated on Skye and draw photographers and visitors at every appropriate evening throughout the year.

The Old Man of Storr is the most distinctive and most photographed geological feature in Scotland, a great rocky pinnacle 55 metres high rising from the Trotternish Ridge on the Isle of Skye in a cluster of rock towers and spires that stand against the sky above Loch Leathan with a profile simultaneously alien and deeply natural. The pinnacle and the surrounding rock formation are the product of one of the largest and most active landslip systems in Europe, the slow but continuous movement of the basalt plateau above sliding over the underlying softer rocks and creating the chaotic, dramatic landscape of towers, pinnacles and faces visible today. The walk to the Old Man from the car park below takes approximately forty-five minutes and involves a sustained steep ascent through plantation forestry and then open hillside to reach the base of the pinnacle cluster. The approach is straightforward in good weather but the path can be muddy and slippery after rain, and the cloud that frequently envelops the Trotternish Ridge can reduce visibility significantly. The reward in clear conditions is a close encounter with rock towers of imposing scale and the wide views over the Loch and Sound of Raasay toward the mainland mountains. The Trotternish Peninsula as a whole is one of the most geologically extraordinary landscapes in Britain, the ongoing landslip processes having created a succession of dramatic features along the ridge from the Old Man in the south to the Quiraing in the north. The thirty-kilometre ridge walk connecting these features is one of the finest hill walks on Skye, combining continuous geological drama with exceptional views in both directions across the island and the surrounding sea. The Old Man of Storr appears frequently in film and television productions requiring a dramatic, otherworldly landscape, and its profile has become as recognisable internationally as any natural feature in Scotland.

Portree is the largest town on the Isle of Skye and its colourful harbour provides the most photographed view on the island: a row of painted houses in shades of pink, yellow, red and blue reflected in the sheltered waters of the bay, backed by wooded hillsides rising to the moorland above. The name Portree comes from the Scottish Gaelic Port Ruighe, meaning Royal Port, a reference to a visit by King James V in 1540 as part of his royal progress through the Western Isles to assert his authority over the clan chiefs of the region. The harbour developed as a fishing port and trading centre serving the scattered communities of Skye and the surrounding islands. Its sheltered position, formed by a natural bay in the coastline of the island's eastern shore, provided the kind of safe anchorage that was at a premium along the dramatically exposed western coast of Scotland. Fishing boats still work from the harbour, alongside the tour vessels that carry visitors to the dramatic sea stacks, seal colonies and wildlife-rich coastal areas visible from the water. Portree serves as the natural base for exploring Skye and its position roughly central on the island makes most of the major landscapes and attractions accessible as day excursions. The Old Man of Storr, the Quiraing, the Fairy Pools near Glenbrittle, the Cuillin mountains and the Trotternish ridge are all within an hour's drive, making Portree the ideal overnight base for a visit of two or three days. The town itself has a good range of independent shops, seafood restaurants and accommodation options ranging from luxury hotels to budget hostels. The Aros Centre provides visitor information and a cinema, and the town's weekly farmers market offers local produce including Skye seafood, venison and artisan foods. Bonnie Prince Charlie made his final farewell to Flora MacDonald in Portree in 1746 after his escape from government forces following the Battle of Culloden, a connection to the romantic Jacobite history of the Western Isles that adds another layer of historical significance to this already compelling town.