Academy Street gateway
The neoclassical sandstone arch of the original 1870 market, by Matthews and Lawrie, is the finest thing the market owns.
Tanya Dedyukhina — CC BY 3.0 · Reading Tom from Reading, UK — CC BY 2.0 · Reading Tom from Reading, UK — CC BY 2.0 · Daniel Kraft — CC BY-SA 3.0
In 1889 this market burned to the ground, and the story told here is a bleak one: a butcher's dog that had guarded the shop at weekends for eight years refused to leave his post and died in the fire. Dogs have been welcome under this roof ever since. The original New Market opened in 1870, and its neoclassical sandstone gateway on Academy Street, by the local partnership of Matthews and Lawrie, is, frankly, the best single thing about the place. Behind it two intersecting arcades were rebuilt in iron and timber and reopened on 8 September 1891, lit from above by clerestory windows rather than by anything as grand as a glass roof. Inside are more than thirty independent traders: jewellers, tartan and kilt makers, Scottish gifts, sweets, barbers, a butcher and small cafes, a few of them long established, a few units empty or shut by mid-afternoon. The real pulse now is the Market Hall, refurbished by Highland Council and reopened in 2022, where about a dozen food counters ring a shared seating area, covering Indian and Chinese street food, pizza, Scottish seafood, a bakery and a greengrocer. We could not confirm halal meat at any counter, so the seafood, the bakery and the vegetarian dishes are the safer bets for families. One caveat said plainly: one of the counters is a bar, and the evening music partly revolves around it, so the evenings are not necessarily a family scene. Entry is free and nothing needs booking. The doors open daily from 08:00, but shops effectively trade 09:00 to 17:00 Monday to Saturday and some close on Sunday, while the food counters run to 17:00 and to 20:00 on Friday and Saturday. Getting there is effortless: Inverness railway station is two or three minutes' walk along Academy Street, and the floors are level and pushchair-friendly throughout. Keep your expectations honest. This is a half-hour wander, not a destination, and its true value shows when the rain sets in or when you need a quick covered lunch between a Loch Ness excursion and a train. In July and August the hall fills with tourists at lunchtime; in winter it is a warm, lit refuge in a city that goes dark before four in the afternoon.
The neoclassical sandstone arch of the original 1870 market, by Matthews and Lawrie, is the finest thing the market owns.
About a dozen food counters around shared tables, refurbished in 2022, with seafood, bakery and vegetarian options.
A covered arcade with level floors between the station and the city centre, ideal for pushchairs and wet days.
Academy Street, Inverness IV1 1JN
Inverness Museum and Art GalleryIn the ground-floor natural history room stands a stuffed puma, caught alive in 3 minutes walk4.6
Greig Street BridgeInvernessians call it the Bouncy Bridge, and they are not exaggerating: get four3 minutes walk4.6
Inverness CastleThe red castle you see from every bridge in Inverness was a working courthouse r4 minutes walk4.2
Inverness CathedralTwo square towers, cut off flat as if someone forgot to finish them. That is how7 minutes walk4.3
Ness IslandsTwenty minutes' walk upstream from Inverness city centre, the River Ness splits 22 minutes walk4.9Just pass through. It is a covered shortcut between the station and the city centre, so walk it on your way or when the rain starts, and allow half an hour, or an hour if you eat in the food hall. With limited time in Inverness, Loch Ness and Culloden deserve the hours more.
We could not confirm halal meat at any counter, so the safest choices for families are the seafood counter, the bakery, the greengrocer and vegetarian dishes at the Indian and pizza counters. Note too that one counter is a bar, so the music evenings are not always a family atmosphere.