Inverness
Template:Infobox Scotland place with map
Inverness (Inbhir Nis in Scottish Gaelic) is the only city in the Scottish Highlands.
The city is the administrative centre for the Highland council area and of the Inverness committee area of the council. Between 1975 and 1986, it was the administrative centre of the Inverness district, which was carved out of the local government county of Inverness-shire. The area of the district became the committee area. Until 1975, it was a burgh and county town for the county. The Inverness name is also given to the most extensive of the Lieutenancy areas of Scotland. The city is the self-proclaimed "Capital of the Highlands".
Inverness was granted city status by the Queen in December 2000, and celebrated its new status officially in March 2001. This city status was granted, however, without definition of either boundaries or representative corporate body. The right to speak for the city is assumed by the Highland Council, in association with a local enterprise company[1].
In 2001, the population of Inverness, the urban area centred on the former burgh, was 51,832[2] and is expected to double over the next 30 years. Recently, Inverness was named the fastest growing city in Western Europe, with many new housing estates being built around the city. Tourism is important to the city's economy, as are administration and healthcare.
Geography
Inverness lies at the mouth of the River Ness as it flows into the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland. It is from this that the city derives its name: Inbhir Nis Scots Gaelic for "mouth (or confluence) of the Ness". The river flows from nearby Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal connects Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy.
Islands in the River Ness, the Bught and- the river banks form a pleasant series of walks, as do the forested hills of Craig Phadraig and Craig Dunain. The city is well served with shops, as it is the main shopping centre for an area of nearly 26,000 km².
Buildings in Inverness include Inverness Castle and numerous churches, including St Andrew's Cathedral (Episcopalian). However, the oldest church is the Old High Church, on St Michael's Mount by the riverside, a site perhaps used for worship since Celtic times. The church tower dates from mediaeval times, making it the oldest surviving building in Inverness. Used by the Church of Scotland congregation of Old High St Stephen's, it is the venue for the annual Kirking of the Council attended by local councillors. The Castle was built on the site of its medieval predecessor in 1835 and is now a Sheriff Court. St Andrew's Cathedral has a curiously square-topped look to its spires, as funds ran out before they could be completed.
Economy
Most of the traditional industries such as distilling have been replaced by high-tech businesses, including the design and manufacture of diabetes diagnostic kits. Retailing is another big sector. The Eastgate shopping centre has recently gone under a major expansion, making it one of the biggest shopping centres in Scotland. Shops include Next, Debenhams, HMV, Crabtree & Evelyn as well as a food court home to fast food places like KFC and Pizza Hut. The city is also home to the football clubs Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. and Clachnacuddin F.C.. Bught Park, located in the centre of Inverness is the Finishing point of the annual Loch Ness marathon.
Inverness is linked to the Black Isle across the Moray Firth by the Kessock Bridge. It has a railway station[3] with services to Perth, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London, to Aberdeen, to Thurso and Wick, and to Kyle of Lochalsh. Inverness Airport[4] is located 15 km east of the city and has scheduled flights to airports across the U.K. including London, Edinburgh and the islands to the north and west of Scotland. Three trunk roads (the A9, A82 and A96) provide access to Aberdeen, Perth, Elgin, Thurso and Glasgow.
Culloden Moor lies nearby, and was the site of the Battle of Culloden in 1746, which ended the Jacobite Rising of 1745-1746.
Inverness also serves as somewhat of a Mecca for lovers and players of the bagpipes. Every September the city hosts the Northern Meeting, the most prestigious solo piping competition in the world. The Inverness cape, a garment worn by pipers the world over in the rain, is not necessarily made in Inverness.
History
Inverness was one of the chief strongholds of the Picts, and in 565 was visited by Saint Columba with the intention of converting the Pictish king Brude, who is supposed to have resided in the vitrified fort on Craig Phadrig (168 m), 2.4 km west of the city. The castle is said to have been built by Malcolm Canmore, after he had razed to the ground the castle in which Macbeth according to tradition murdered Duncan, and which stood on a hill around 1 km to the north-east.
William the Lion (d. 1214) granted Inverness four charters, by one of which it was created a royal burgh. Of the Dominican abbey founded by Alexander III in 1233 hardly a trace remains. On his way to the Battle of Harlaw in 1411, Donald, Lord of the Isles, harried the city, and sixteen years later James I held a parliament in the castle to which the northern chieftains were summoned, of whom three were executed for asserting an independent sovereignty.
In 1562, during the progress undertaken to suppress Huntly's insurrection, Queen Mary was denied admittance into the castle by the governor, who belonged to the earl's faction, and whom she afterwards therefore caused to be hanged. The house in which she lived meanwhile stood in Bridge Street until the 1970s, when it was demolished to make way for the second Bridge Street development. The city's Marymass Fair, on the Saturday nearest August 15th, (a tradition revived in 1986) is said to commemorate Queen Mary as well as the Virgin Mary.
Beyond the northern limits of the city Oliver Cromwell built a fort capable of accommodating 1000 men, but with the exception of a portion of the ramparts it was demolished at the Restoration. In 1715 the Jacobites occupied the royal fortress as a barracks. In 1727 the government built the first Fort George here, but in 1746 it surrendered to the Jacobites and they blew it up.
On September 7 1921 the only UK Cabinet meeting to be held outside London took place in the Town House, when David Lloyd George, on holiday in Gairloch called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Ireland. The Inverness Formula composed at this meeting was the basis of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Area committee
- See also: Politics of the Highland council area
The committee area consists of 23 out of the 80 Highland Council wards. Each ward elects one councilor by the first past the post system of election.
The area is represented by 14 independent councillors, six Labour councillors, two Scottish National Party councillors and one Liberal Democrat councillor.
Parliamentary burgh and constituency
As a component of Inverness District of Burghs Inverness was a parliamentary burgh from 1708 to 1918. The other burghs of this district of burghs constituency were Forres, Fortrose and Nairn. It was a constituency of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918.
In 1918 the Inverness burgh was merged into the then new Inverness constituency. The other components of the district of burghs were divided between the Moray and Nairn constituency and the Ross and Cromarty constituency.
The rest of the new Inverness constituency consisted of the mainland and Inner Hebridean areas of the former Inverness-shire constituency. The Outer Hebridean area of the Inverness-shire constituency was merged into the Western Isles constituency.
In 1983, eight years after the local government county of Inverness-shire had been divided between the Highland and Grampian regions and the Western Isles council area, the Inverness constituency was largely replaced by the Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber constituency.
Areas of Inverness
Ballifeary, Balloch, Beechwood, Bught, Carse, Castle Heather, Clachnaharry, Cradlehall, Crown, Croy, Highland, Culcabock, Culduthel, Culloden, Dalneigh, Drakies, Drummond, Haugh, Hilton, Holm, Inshes, Kinmylies, Leachkin, Lochardil, Longman, Merkinch, Millburn, Milton, Muirtown, Ness Castle, Ness-Side, Raigmore, Scorguie, Seafield, Slackbuie, Smithton, South Kessock, Torvean and Westhill.
Town twinning
Augsburg, Germany
Inverness, Florida, United States
La Baule, France- St Valery-en-Caux, France
Footnotes
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
- ^ The Highland Council has a website devoted to the City of Inverness[1]. The website inclues maps[2].
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
city populationwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ The Highland Main Line, the Aberdeen-Inverness Line and the Far North Line meet at Inverness (Ordnance Survey grid reference NH667454). Also, Kyle of Lochalsh services run to and from Inverness via the Far North Line to Dingwall.
- ^ Ordnance Survey grid reference for Inverness Airport (access from A96 road): NH776508.
External links
