Why you should choose Inverness for a laid-back, low-impact summer city break

The Highlands’ capital makes for a pressure-free trip where community and sustainability are more than just buzzwords, writes Emma Gibbs

Inverness is a chilled-out summer city break destination (Getty/iStockphoto)

Timing is everything. Which is the best excuse I can give for why it’s not even 11.30am and we’re already propping up the bar at Uile-bheist Distillery with three beers and a whisky in front of us. “This only came in yesterday,” our guide Connor says as he pours a dram, “so you’ve chosen a great day to be here.” Resistance is futile.

Many distilleries start off making gin while they wait for their whisky to mature (Scotch has to do so for at least three years to be classified as such), but at Uile-bheist they’ve started with beer, which, when you consider that the two things are made from the same initial ingredients (barley, yeast and water), makes sense. The sleek, glass-fronted building here is mere steps away from the River Ness, which provides water not just for the drinks, but for power – the on-site energy centre produces enough electricity for both the distillery and its adjoining hotel.

Uile-bheist distillery (Emma Gibbs)

This is the first new distillery in Inverness in 130 years – and the first whisky tour I’ve been on where the good stuff hasn’t even been bottled yet. Though it feels rather audacious to be offering whisky tours when all they have is their (not-made-on-site) blended and a range of beers, the enthusiasm and honesty of everyone involved and the small size of the distillery gives Uile-bheist the feel of an energetic but unpretentious start-up; by the end of it, I feel as though I’ve been let in on a great secret.

Uile-bheist isn’t alone in placing sustainability at the heart of its business – in fact, it’s a word that colours our days in this small Highland city that’s home to just 48,000 people

And the beer’s fantastic: whether it’s the Ness water or because it’s been piped straight from the tanks to the bar, the five products – craft lager, pale ale, IPA, white IPA and stout – are all incredibly fresh and crisp. Best of all, Uile-bheist is fully committed to a sustainable model, so the spent grains end up back at the local farms where they were grown, as feed for the cattle. The company’s plans are very much about keeping things low-carbon, small-scale and Highland-based, rather than worldwide supermarket domination.

Read more on Scotland travel:

• Scotland country guide: Everything you need to know before you go
• The best Scotland road trips to travel in your lifetime
• Best beaches in Scotland to visit this summer

Afterwards, we emerge – somewhat hazily – into the daylight and wander alongside the wide, shallow River Ness while seagulls squawk overhead, feeling every mile of the hundreds we’d put between us and London on the Caledonian Sleeper last night.

Uile-bheist isn’t alone in placing sustainability at the heart of its business – in fact, it’s a word that colours our days in this small Highland city that’s home to just 48,000 people: at River House, on the opposite side of the river, we eat the freshest oysters we’ve ever had, from a low-impact oyster farm in the far northwestern corner of the mainland; and we sample yet more top quality beer at the B-Corp accredited Black Isle Brewery’s bar on Church Street. It’s made just a few miles north of the city, where the on-site farm grows many of the ingredients for their fantastic pizzas.

Pizza and beer at Black Isle Bar (Emma Gibbs)

While admittedly there’s not a huge number of “big” sights in the city itself, Inverness offers the best kind of city break – one that’s free from the pressure of having to do things. That said, it is dolphin season – so there is at least one must-do activity. On our second afternoon, we join a two-hour RIB trip with Dolphin Spirit and within half an hour are watching a small pod of bottlenose dolphins trace the shoreline of the Black Isle, across the Moray Firth from the city, our small group of adults reduced to gleeful, child-like exclamations.

Afterwards, our skipper takes us further out along the firth, where we spot countless seals lounging on the sands, like ungainly canine mermaids. By the time we head back to base, the wind has picked up and the waves are rearing up over the side of the boat and drenching us so ferociously that the water drips steadily down the inside of my waterproof coat. As I blink back the saltwater, I catch a glimmer of movement to my side: two common dolphins, sleek and grey, their bodies curving in synchronicity with the waves. With every jolt of the boat and splash of water, the dolphins disappear and are then revealed again, as though they’re leading us back to the harbour, until eventually we lose them, just as the graceful white lines of the Kessock Bridge appear in the distance.

Despite the drenching we’ve just had, it’s the water that feels like the biggest draw here. Following the river south from the harbour, past a staggering number of imposing old churches (many now defunct), the city seems to peel away and a real sense of the Highlands sets in as the trees crowd around us. We spend an hour or so dodging showers at the Botanic Gardens, where we seem to be the only non-locals, ducking under huge palm leaves in the Tropical House and following butterflies through the wildflower meadow. Afterwards, we wind our way back towards the centre through towering firs and fragrant pines on the tranquil Ness Islands, linked by a handful of graceful old bridges, reluctant to believe we’re still in the city.

The River Ness and Ness Islands (Emma Gibbs)

“There’s a really strong sense of community here,” Connor had said to us at Uile-bheist. We feel it most in the evenings, crammed shoulder to shoulder with beers in hand and toes tapping to Church Street Shuffle’s fiddle-led folk at Hootenanny (or “Hoots” as it’s affectionately known), and while sitting companionably with the bartender at The Malt Room, discussing whisky preferences and sniffing bottles to find our next favourite dram (Port Charlotte, if anyone’s asking). In fact, such is the laidback, friendly feel of the city that we spend our evenings hopping from place to place: following the music in and out of Hoots and MacGregor’s a handful of times; sampling Vietnamese-inspired espresso martinis (and amazing late-night doughnuts) at PERK; and cutting down to the river to marvel at the never-ending twilight of a Highland midsummer.

Travel essentials

Getting there

Travelling flight-free

It’s hard to beat a morning arrival into the city centre by Caledonian Sleeper, which runs nightly (except Saturdays) between London Euston and Inverness.

Travelling by air

British Airways, easyJet and Loganair fly to Inverness from a number of other UK cities, including London, Birmingham and Manchester; it’s a half-hour bus journey to the city from the airport.

Staying there

The smart, new AC Hotel has a prime riverside position just north of vibrant Church Street, with the best of its unfussy rooms overlooking the water and the green hills beyond. From £99, B&B.

Read more of our best Scottish Highlands hotel reviews