Things you didn't know about... Inverness

Inverness often loses 25,000 inhabitants
Inverness—or "the capital of the Highlands", as it likes to call itself—is unusual as although it was granted city status in 2001, it actually has no statutory boundaries. That means its population is reckoned at 40,900 or 66,000, depending on which statistics you use.

Inverness is going places, fast
Inverness is Europe's fastest-growing city, said the Daily Telegraph in February 2008. In a recent survey, it came fifth out of 189 British cities for quality of life.

From Downing Street to Inverness
The only Cabinet meeting to take place outside London was held in the Town House, Inverness, on 7 September 1921, when Prime Minister David Lloyd George summoned his ministers to discuss the Ireland problem.

These talks led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, meaning partition, the creation of the Irish Republic and the separate province of Northern Ireland—and all because he was on holiday in nearby Gairloch at the time.

The pipes are really piping in Inverness
If you don't like the screeching skirl of bagpipes, steer clear of Inverness in September—bagpipers from all over the planet converge on the city for the Northern Meeting—the largest bagpiping event in the world.

Inverness is the spot to spot a monster
Who is not familiar with the myth of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster? Mention is made of the monster as far back as the sixth century, when St Columba reportedly banished it back to the water.

But the modern obsession with Nessie began in 1933, when three separate sightings of a creature with a body around 1 m (4 ft) high, an 8 m (25 ft) neck and a small flat head led to hysteria in the press.

Many believe that the monster—if it exists—evolved from plesiosaurs. Sceptics, however, point to the fact that several of the most famous "sightings" have since been unmasked as hoaxes. Still, it's all good for the economy in Inverness—tourism is one of the main sectors of employment in the city.