This event no longer takes place.

There are times when I am almost left speechless by a beautiful location and the friendliness of people that I have met and Inverness was one of those places!

My original reasoning for choosing Inverness was very simple, I as a parkrun tourist who wanted to chose one of the northern most parkruns on the UK mainland and it was easy to get to from Luton Airport with Inverness just a 1 hour 15 minute flight time away!

What a treat I was in for Inverness alone is quite simply a breathtaking city on the banks of the river Ness, even the weather played it’s part bathing this exquisite location in beautiful sunlight!

So on the Saturday afternoon after the parkrun I booked myself onto a cruise that incorporated Caledonian Canal, then a trip across Lock Ness to as far as Urquhart castle 🙂

Wow to say I was stunned by the beauty of the Loch and surrounding countryside would be an understatement, I even had record a video of my cruise trip on the Loch to show it in it’s full glory, with link here

Next time though let’s hope Nessie makes an appearance 😉

So what about the parkrun itself I only turned up on the day of their 6th anniversary birthday what a coincidence, they kindly even on request organised a team photo of the whole of the Inverness parkrun community, what a lovely touch we make!

Course

The course is just over three anticlockwise laps Bught Park pitches that is run entirely on grass and considering how hilly the surrounding area there is probably not a flatter course you will find in the UK, you have been told!

My time was 37:13 just happy to be there on the tough road improve my times to ultimately running times averaging 25 min parkrun times I hope!

Points to note!

• As with all grass courses after a prolonged period of rain, definitely run in at least trail running shoes!
• Very slightly changed course as there was an event in the bottom corner of the park, so we had to run in front of the marque tent thats all!
• Finally importantly all parkruns in Scotland start at 9:30am not 9:00am back in England

Facilities

This is an unusual one for me as I am normally driving to the venue and this time I was staying in a hotel not more than half mile from Bught park, they quote for car parking it is best use the Canal Park rugby pitches.

For the post run coffee it was a first for me having a lovely coffee at Floral Hall Coffee Shop that is inside Inverness Botantic Gardens a must look-around  for any keen gardener!

I also would also recommend being a sports lover timing your visit to Bught park when the local Inverness Shinty club have a game on!

Conclusion

I would like to thank RD Gary Reid and the whole of Inverness parkrun community for making all of us tourists extremely welcome on your birthday, excellent stuff guys!

So finally I have had a brilliant mini weekend breaks in this most picturesque of Highland locations, so you have been told visit Inverness you will not be let down!

Best

Mark

Event 59 Heartwood Forest 23-09-2017