File:Friars Bridge and River Ness Inverness Scotland (4970878623).jpg

Low tide and very little water in the river as result.

Despite not being a native Invernessian, my 49 year family residence in the Royal Burgh gives me an immense sense of pride in the place and a keen interest in its history.

On a recent sunny yet cloudy August day, I had the opportunity to spend a few peaceful minutes at Glebe Street, Inverness site of the former Inverness Swimming Baths. (We now have a fancy ultra-modern sports centre with various swimming facilities on the edge of town, but the old "Baths" had a certain something that everybody who learned to swim there treasured).

Glebe is a Scottish word for land owned by – and its cultivation for the financial benefit of - the Church. The oblong area around where the Abbey once stood is bounded by Glebe Street, Friars’ Street, Friars Lane and Chapel Street.

At that point - the Friars' Shott - the River Ness curves sharply and The Friars' Bridge crosses on the apex of the bend.

The stretch of water - the Friars' Shott - takes its name from the Dominican Friars who between the 12th and 16th century had an abbey nearby (see my photostream for Blackfriars Abbey) and who had the legal right and entitlement to shoot nets across the river to take salmon.

The Shott had a slipway (at the bottom of Wells Street) where, even as recently(!?) as the days of my youth, small boats could be launched. The river bank along that side was lined with stone, with "steps" and although the slipway has now gone, the bank where it once was has been similarly "stepped" to blend in.

Adjacent to Glebe Street, and facing the river, is the quaint little street of Douglas Row, which still retains many of its olde-worlde low cottages.

Only a short walk from the hussle and bussle of the City Centre, the area is peaceful and picturesque with good views of the Craig Phadrig Hill above the town (the site of a vitrified fort once the stronghold of Brude, King of the Picts), now heavily forested but with a flat top. There is also a good view of the river upstream as far as the Castle, with the locally manufactured 19th Century Greig Street (suspension) footbridge and the remarkably unobtrusive mid-20th century Ness Bridge (road bridge).