Invergordon and the Highlands from a cruise port

Cruise passengers arriving at Invergordon sometimes look out of their cabin windows and wonder where they have come to. The view from the Cromarty Firth is not the Highlands of the shortbread tins. There are oil rigs in the water, great steel platforms, and an industrial quay, and a small town behind it. But the firth itself is a wide and sheltered stretch of water, the hills rise beyond it, and Invergordon is very well placed for anyone who wants to see the Highlands in a day.

It is also a busy one. The Port of Cromarty Firth has been ranked as the largest cruise port in Scotland, and ships tie up alongside its piers, so passengers walk straight off the gangway and into the town, with no tenders to wait for.

A mutiny in the firth

The Cromarty Firth was a naval anchorage long before it was a cruise port, and Invergordon's name is attached to one of the stranger episodes in the history of the Royal Navy. In September 1931, in the depths of the financial crisis, the government announced pay cuts across the public sector, and the sailors of the Atlantic Fleet, anchored off Invergordon, learned from the newspapers that their pay would be cut, in some cases by far more than they had expected. The cuts were presented as ten per cent across the board, but they did not fall equally: by one reckoning a commander lost under four per cent of his pay, while an able seaman on the old rates lost nearly a quarter of his. It is not hard to see why the lower decks were angry. On 15 and 16 September about a thousand of them refused to obey orders. It was more a strike than a mutiny, but the news of it caused panic in the City of London and a run on the pound, and on 21 September Britain was forced off the gold standard. The men won concessions. Some of the organisers were jailed, and around two hundred sailors were discharged.

A day in the Highlands

From Invergordon, Inverness is some twenty-four miles away by road, about half an hour's drive, and most of the excursions from the port head south and west into the heart of the Highlands.

The first is usually Loch Ness. It is a long, deep loch, more than twenty miles from end to end, and it is said to hold more fresh water than all the lakes and rivers of England and Wales combined. That is a lot of room for a monster to hide in, and it would be unkind to say she has not been looked for.

Near Inverness is Culloden. On 16 April 1746, on the moor here, the Jacobite army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, met the government army of the Duke of Cumberland, and was defeated. It is often described as the last pitched battle fought on British soil. The moor is bleak and quiet now, and it is a place that stays with people.

North of the firth, a different day out takes you to Dornoch, a small town with a cathedral that dates from the thirteenth century, and a memorial stone recalling the town's last witch burning, in 1722.

Cruises that call at Invergordon

Three cruises in the catalogue call at Invergordon, and all three also list Kirkwall, in Orkney, so the Highlands and the northern isles come together on each of them.

Ambassador Cruise Line's four-night Legends of the North: Kirkwall to the Highlands sails from Belfast in July, with Kirkwall in the Orkney Isles, Invergordon and Dundee on its itinerary.

Fred. Olsen's nine-night Scenic Islands & Highlands of Scotland sails from Newcastle in September. Its ports and places include Invergordon, Lerwick, Portree, the Isle of Staffa and the Dutchman's Cap, Duart Castle, Loch Hourn, Ullapool and Kirkwall.

Ambassador Cruise Line's ten-night British Isles Explorer – Castles & Coastlines sails from London Tilbury in April, calling at Invergordon, Kirkwall in the Orkney Isles, Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, Cobh, the Isles of Scilly and St. Peter Port on Guernsey.

Whichever you choose, decide before you arrive what kind of day you want: the loch, the battlefield, or both. The Highlands are big, a day is short, and the ship will not wait.