Inverness

Inverness  “Mouth of the River Ness” is the regarded as the capital of the Highlands and with 47,000 residents,  about a quarter of all Highlanders. The Ness with it’s high banks, bridges and walkways reminds one of the River Liffey in Dublin.

It has a castle, of course, but this one is currently the Sheriff Court so is off-limits for public viewing.

That’s Flora MacDonald who hails from the beautiful island of Benbecula in the Hebrides that I visited last year.  Flora is a Scottish folk hero for her part in helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape after the Culloden disaster.

There is also a wee museum around the corner.

The Cathedral Church of St Andrew, I was not surprised is a Scottish Episcopal Church.  When I first walked in it seemed different from other Episcopal churches I have visited so I asked the priest in civilian attire what I was missing.  Turns out he was the Bishop and explained to me that Bishop Eden decided to make Inverness the main cathedral for the united diocese in 1862. Since most, if not all, the Catholic churches in Scotland had been destroyed after the Jacobite rebellion, this church was never Catholic.

You can see in the picture the church never got the spires due, I’m guessing,  to lack of funds.

A short distance away is St. Mary’s the Catholic church.  Unfortunately the brilliant, new ceiling lights that were on when I walked in but went off before I could get a photo.

There doesn’t seem to be much to do in Inverness other than shopping with quite a lot of stores.  Makes sense as the Highland Capital would naturally be where everyone would go when off to the city.  Since public transport doesn’t run on Christmas or Boxing Day, I’m assuming that the whole place will be shut down on Christmas so I’ve hit the local Tesco to stock up for the next couple of days. Monday will be a giant shopping event as all the stores are already running adverts for Boxing Day sales.  Maybe I’ll get a deal on a new cap to replace the one floating in the River Wick.

I ended up here as a mid point between the solstice in the far north and Hogmanay  in Plockton knowing most places would be closed for Christmas therefore giving the fibromyalgia a breather.  It is a very unseasonably warm day today but the wind is still blowing like stink.