Carbuncle Award would be unfair

PARTS of Inverness are not the prettiest examples of contemporary architecture, but to suggest for one moment that the city is on a par with the concrete monstrosity that is Cumbernauld is stretching credulity to the limits.

The Highland capital has, to a certain extent, become a victim of its own success and the house-building required to keep pace with its rapid expansion has led to a uniformity of design which has not enhanced the appearance of some of the newer estates. The 1960s-style office buildings, particularly that formerly occupied by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, are, not to put too fine a point on it, grotesque, but nothing a couple of bulldozers and some enthusiastic drivers couldn’t improve.

That said, there remain some excellent examples of architecture, with the view from Ness Walk of the castle and cathedral as attractive as more or less anything Scotland’s other towns and cities have to offer.

The river itself provides a beautiful focal point and the older granite houses in some of the suburbs retain character and charm. Cumbernauld and, before that, Glenrothes were deserving winners of the architectural magazine’s Carbuncle Award. Inverness should not even be mentioned in the same breath.