Things you didn't know about... Inverness-shire

A county within a county
Inverness-shire contains another county—Nairnshire, or more accurately, a part of Nairnshire. An "exclave" of the neighbouring Scottish county lies bang in the middle of Inverness-shire.

Inverness: the flower of Scotland
Capital of the Highlands, Inverness is Scotland's second newest city—it was granted city status in 2000. But even as a town, it was a winner—Inverness received the 1996 Award for Best Large Town in the annual Bloom of Britain competition.

Never mind Nessie, watch the skies
Inverness-shire is home to Loch Ness, 38.6 km (24 mi) long, 1.6 km (1 mi) wide in places, 213 m (700 ft) deep, and of course the legendary home of the Loch Ness monster. The area is also a flight path for birds migrating between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. You might spot a buzzard or even an eagle or osprey.

Ben Nevis, home of the highest piano in the British Isles
At 1,343 m (4,406 ft), Inverness-shire's Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the UK. The simplest and most popular ascent to the summit is the 1883 Pony Track (also known as the Ben Path, Mountain Path or Tourist Route) that begins at Achintee near Fort William in Inverness-shire. During a clean-up of the peak in 2006, a piano was found buried under one of the many cairns. It's thought it was carried up there in a charity stunt some 20 years earlier.

Inverness-shire—from the North Sea to the Irish Sea
The Caledonian Canal was planned and built at the beginning of the 19th century by Thomas Telford. The idea was to connect the east and west coasts of Scotland, and so save ships a lengthy detour round the north of the country. Running from Inverness in the east to near Fort William, the canal is about 96.5 km (60 mi) long. Its 28 locks include Neptune's Staircase, a flight of eight locks at Corpach in Inverness-shire, which has a total lift of 19.5 m (64 ft).

Inverness-shire—the Orange County
Fort William grew from a settlement next to a fortified barracks, named after William of Orange. It was originally built to control the local population after Oliver Cromwell's invasion during the English Civil War.

Inverness-shire is home to the best team in the world
Shinty, a variant of the Irish game of hurling, is now played almost exclusively in the Highlands. Inverness-shire's shinty team Kingussie Camanachd has featured in Guinness World Records as the world's most successful sporting team of all time. It won 20 consecutive league championships and went unbeaten for four years in the early 1990s.