Inverness Exploring (Day 12, Part 2 of 2)

 

We finished our bike ride around 2:00 p.m..  Ann was scheduled to pick us up at 4:00 so we had a couple of hours to explore.  I noticed that many towns in Scotland begin with "inver" and asked Ann about that.  It means mouth of the river.  So Inverness is simply the mouth of the River Ness.

 

 

 

The current Inverness Castle sits on a cliff overlooking the River Ness where castles have been built since 1057.  This castle was built in 1836.  It is currently closed to visitors while a new visitor center is under construction.

The Columba Hotel was originally built in 1881.

Inverness is a lovely town.  The River Walk is beautiful and relaxing.

The Inverness War Memorial commemorates the residents of Inverness who died in the First and Second World Wars. The names of those who died in other wars like peace operations are also written on the memorial.

We walked some more and met a lovely Scottish couple.  They welcomed us to their town and talked about searching for family.

 

Have I mentioned the beautiful weather?

This is the Inverness Cathedral.  Construction began in 1866 and it opened for services in 1869.

We then found the Faith, Hope and Charity statues that stand in Ness Bank Gardens directly next to Ness Bank Church.  FYI this "bank" has nothing to do with a financial institution, but the bank of the Ness River.

 

The YMCA commissioned local sculptor Andrew Davidson to create three statues embodying the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity to go on top of the Inverness branch of the YMCA in about 1868.

The building was demolished in 1955 and the statues were transferred to the Burgh Surveyor's yard, where they remained until 1961. At that time, an antique collector from Orkney acquired the statues.  The statues were returned to Inverness in 2011.

The statues are not in the order as listed on the base.  From left to right they are Charity, Faith and Hope.  Charity has a flaming heart, with children, gathering fruit.  Faith has a cross, the Bible, pointing upward.  Hope has as anchor, harp, flaming brand.

We finally decided we need a little something to eat.  We found the River Grill. Coffee and tomato soup hit the spot!

We made our way back to our meeting spot and Ann was waiting to take us back to the ship.  Another wonderful day that ended with dinner in the dining room.  I don't remember what we ate, but my notebook says, "Dinner in the dining room = A+"  I do remember dessert, and my notebook says, "Berry cobbler = A++"