Highland training

In the final part of our series looking at how you can get around Scotland by train, Mark Nicholls makes Inverness his departure point

Inverness has for centuries been an historic and strategic meeting point, the place where the Highlands converge with the Lowlands.

The modern Inverness, created Scotland's fifth city at the Millennium, is a thriving commercial centre with historic buildings, a castle and good road and rail links. It also sits on the River Ness (Loch Ness is not far away) and also at the head of the Caledonian Canal, which reaches across the width of Scotland.

Inverness Castle, dating from the 1830s, is now the setting of the Castle Garrison Encounter, a costume re-enactment of life for an 18th-century soldier, further out is the vast fortifications of Fort George, while a few minutes from Inverness, the National Trust for Scotland's visitor centre at Culloden vividly tells the story of the defeat of the Jacobite forces led by Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746.

Good for shopping, with a selection of pubs and restaurants, Inverness is perfect as a base for exploring the Highlands by train and provides a wonderful opportunity to experience another great national rail treasure in the United Kingdom, the Kyle of Lochalsh line.

Running from Dingwall to the Kyle of Lochalsh, it crosses sparsely populated, yet beautiful, terrain. If you have time, pause along the route, perhaps stopping off at the picturesque village of Plockton, famed for its mild climate and sheltered location.

The line opened in 1870 as far as Stromeferry and was extended to Kyle in 1895, through unforgiving countryside, rock cu...

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• By : Mark Nicholls
• In : Travel
• Issue : 31
• Page : 64
• Words : 1,263