Exploring Inverness Town House

This weekend there were open days at Inverness Town House to allow the public to explore the inside of this beautiful building. The Town House has recently undergone renovations which cost £3.9million. 

It's a very grand looking building, with beautiful turrets, almost like a fairytale palace. We were intrigued to see if the inside matched the outside and I was pleased to see that lots of other people wanted to see it as well.

The Town House was built in the 1770's and has some very grand chandeliers throughout - I'm glad I don't have the job of cleaning them.

The entrance way has a lovely mosaic of tiles which lead to a grand double staircase.

At the landing of the stairs, where they part to form two flights, there are these beautiful windows with plants in front of them.

One of the council rooms.

More glittering chandeliers and decorative ceiling above the council chambers.

The town hall is a huge space with paintings of important people in the history of Inverness around the walls, along with artifacts from the history of the area. There is even a sword that was used at the battle of Culloden in 1746.

Board of remembrance for highlanders that gave their lives in the first world war.

The two most common names on the boards were the Frasers and the Macphersons, but on the left hand picture there are five Forbes, which are my Scottish ancestors. In the right hand picture there are two antipodeans - Private Macarthur from Australia and Private Macdonald from New Zealand.

The windows that line the hall have clan coats of arms on them and this one really drew our attention.

The motto is; Touch Not The Cat Bot (but) A Glove! When I asked Mr Google what this was all about, it seems it is the motto of Clan Macpherson and implies that the clan has claws and you must be careful how you approach them.

A few more shots of the hall to show you how grand it is, but also to show you how many people had come in to explore their local council's chambers. What was really wonderful is that there were children running around and no one told them to be quiet.

A painting of Duncan Forbes - I wonder if he's a distant relative?

This brutal emblem was on a wall plaque and unfortunately the writing has faded so much it's impossible to read. I'm presuming it is the minotaur, but beyond that I don't know what it's for.

This plaque was near the above and I'm guessing this one is something to do with the Arctic as it has the flags of the UK, USA, and Russia.

It was great to have a look in the Town House as it's a beautiful historic building. Of course we went for coffee and cake whilst we were in town and my beloved had this very romantic looking biscuit - the cafes and bakeries are making the most of the upcoming valentines day.

Our final task for the day was to call into the SSPCA to visit the furby that we're adopting. We got to spend some time with him and he's adorable, likes to give love bites to the hands, especially Ken's, and he's impossible to get a photo of as he never stops moving.

I hope that we'll soon be able to do a post where we welcome him home to join our slightly crazy family.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and have a really wonderful week.

Pamela & Ken

xxxxxxxxxxxx