Fort George sits behind its massive grass-topped artillery defences on an isolated spit of land jutting into the Moray Firth at Ardersier, 11 miles north east of Inverness. Conceived in the immediate aftermath of the 1745 uprising and the nearby Battle of Culloden that concluded it, Fort George was intended to be a once and for all solution to the threat posed by the Highlands, and the Jacobites in particular.

The Fort was built as a "state of the art" artillery defence to the design of William Skinner, by a team led by William Adam. Work began in 1748 and the final cost, of well over £200,000, was double the original budget and more than Scotland's annual GDP for 1750. The end result was nearly contemporary with, but utterly different from, later phases of development at castles like Stirling and Edinburgh.

The Highlands had given concern to the government since the Middle Ages. The inhabitants were viewed as generally unruly: but disaffection following the Cromwellian military occupation made matters worse. This led to the building of a large artillery fort at Inverness and a smaller one at Inverlochy. These both fell after the restoration of Charles II and though Inverlochy was rebuilt as Fort William, Inverness remained in ruins.Fort George offers a fascinating day out.

The bastioned defences with all their outworks are still intact and offer panoramic views over the Moray Firth and surrounding area. The original buildings are largely intact. The barracks house an exhibition of army life in the century following the building of the fort: and the artillery and staff blocks are home to the Regimental Museum of the Queen's Own Highlanders. In the grand magazine is the Seafield Collection of arms and military equipment. Something distinctly different for the castle collectors amongst us...