Inverness Castle

An Inverness holiday brings the splendour of the Highlands within grasp. Twenty miles (32km) east of Inverness is the low-key holiday resort of Nairn, on the Moray Firth, with its long white beaches and championship golf course, venue of the 1999 Walker Cup. Nearby is the magnificent Cawdor Castle that was featured in Shakespeare's Macbeth, and Fort George, one of several Hanoverian bastions erected in the wake of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.

The infamous battle and ensuing massacre that ended in Bonnie Prince Charlie's uprising took place on the outskirts of Inverness, at Culloden, and was the last major battle to take place on British soil. Fort George is one of the most outstanding military fortifications to be found anywhere in Europe. Designed to intimidate the Jacobite Highlanders, Fort George has never seen a shot fired in anger, although today, more than 200 years after it was completed, it is still a working garrison. There is an interesting visitors centre in Culloden, which tells the story of the Jacobite uprising.