Winter wonders take on a festive feel
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – especially in the Highland capital, as Susan Welsh discovered
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IN THE Highland capital, the countdown to the annual Inverness Winter Festival has begun already, as this year it has been extended to run from Halloween to Hogmanay.
The programme is pretty diverse and really does fit the description of offering “something for everyone” as events range from an enormous Advent calendar being projected on to the walls of Inverness Museum and Art Gallery and a live musical calendar to a Chinese lantern launch and three-day transformation of the Ness islands into a living fairyland.
The first of the traditional festive events gets under way this Sunday when the city’s pretty Christmas lights are switched on.
The fun starts at 5pm at the castle, where families will be encouraged to buy Chinese lanterns, priced at £5, and send them soaring into the night skies.
Money raised from the sale of the lanterns will be donated to the Children’s Hospice Association of Scotland (Chas), which works closely with the Highland Hospice, and organisers hope to see at least 100 lanterns being sent skywards.
The lanterns can be collected from the Chas office at the rear of Inverness Castle from 4pm on the day, but remember, the lanterns are going up and away to guide Santa into Inverness at 5pm.
The celebrations then switch to the Town House which, luckily for Highland youngsters, is the only building in Scotland to have a VIP parking space on the roof for Santa’s sleigh.
At 6pm, Provost Jimmy Gray and Santa Claus will appear on the Town House steps to turn on the Christmas lights, which this year include new lights on Church Street, which is almost directly opposite the Town House.
To bring the festivities to a close, families are invited to join Santa and Provost Gray for a visit to one of the most beautiful buildings in Inverness, the Old High Church, at the far end of Church Street.
The Old High is the oldest church in the city and is situated on a wee hill called St Michael’s mound, where St Columba of Iona is said to have preached.
From 6.30pm onwards, the church hosts a fun half-hour candlelit concert for children of all ages and faiths.
During the concert, visitors will be asked to join in the singing of the wonderful Gaelic carol Child in the Manger, by Mary Macdonald (1789-1872), sung to the traditional tune Bunessan.
Donald MacQuarrie, one of the members of the Old High congregation, is a relative of Mary Macdonald and his family still looks after a monument to her on Mull.
Meanwhile, December 1 is red-letter day for Advent calendars, and Inverness is no exception to the rule.
From December 1-24, the city will become a living musical Advent calendar with 24 performances of traditional music being performed in the run-up to the big day.
Some of the city’s finest young musicians will be out and about in the city centre, popping up to play live music in unexpected places, entertaining shoppers and getting their toes tapping.
In addition, an impressive Advent calendar will be projected on to the wall of Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. Designed by John McGeoch, of Arts in Motion, it features images produced by children of Inverness. It will appear each night when darkness falls.
For many people, Christmas and shopping at festive markets go hand in hand. There’s a long history of open-air markets in Inverness stretching back centuries.
In early Victorian times, weekly open-air markets selling everything from fish to cheese stretched from Eastgate to the front of the present Town House on an area known as The Exchange.
But while researching this year’s festival, organisers discovered reports of a market staged on the banks of the River Ness underneath the castle and thought it would be nice to recreate this.
As a result, four festive markets will be held over the weekend of December 12/13. There will be two one-day markets on the 12th at Falcon Square and within the Town House, and on the 13th there’s one in the Victorian Market and one in the “new” riverside location.
Another major attraction will be the 2009 Ness Islands Lights Show, which attracted more than 10,000 visitors last year.
This year, it has been extended to become a three-day event. Details of exactly what’s happening are being kept a closely guarded secret until the last minute, but if last year’s magical transformation of the islands is anything to go by, it will be a not-to-be-missed event.
It takes place on the evenings of Friday, December 18, from 6-9pm, and from 4-7pm on December 19/20.
What is known is that the event organisers have decided to move Santa Claus and his reindeer from the islands to nearby Whin Park on the afternoons of December 19/20 – an event especially good for younger members of the community.
During the event, there will be free rides for all on the famous Whin Park Railway Line, and a special mystery guest is expected to make an appearance at the park’s boating lake, so do remember to bring along your camera.
All the major outdoor events taking place in the Inverness Winter Festival are sponsored by the Inverness Common Good Fund and are free of charge.
You don't need to get a ticket to get in, but do need to dress sensibly. Any grown-ups turning up having overdone the festival cocktails may be refused admission, as these events are aimed at families, which means there will be lots of youngsters around.
For further information on the festival visit the website www.invernessfestivals.com
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