Highland and Moray locations that are looking good on screen, cards, cans, stamps and banknotes
Nobody knows for sure if it’s an exact likeness, but the face of Inverness’ most famous resident is now on a first-class stamp.
The Loch Ness Monster is currently dropping through letter boxes the length and breadth of Britain. So, with that fact in mind, here’s a look at other figures and landmarks whose images have reached out beyond the north of Scotland.
Not one, but two local bridges feature on banknotes.
Taking its place upon the £10 note, is a structure that was widely hailed as a work of engineering genius.
Standing about half a mile from the Moray village that shares its name, the Craigellachie Bridge was designed by Thomas Telford.
As it crossed Scotland’s fastest flowing river – the Spey – Telford decided the bridge had to span the distance in a single arc, rather than relying on as a ‘pier’ to help support it.
Such a feat would have been impossible using stone. Telford therefore turned instead to the still novel technology of cast iron, having the various sections prefabricated at a foundry in Wales, then transported up to Scotland.
This approach was unequivocally vindicated 14 years later when the structure withstood The Muckle Spate, the great flood of August 1829 which devastated much of Speyside and destroyed 22 other bridges.
Appearing on the back of the £100 note is the Kessock Bridge, which spans the Beauly Firth between Inverness and the Black Isle.
Before its construction, travellers had either to take a long 20-mile diversion by road or use the ferry service previously operated from the spot for some 500 years.
Completed in 1982, it took four years to build at a cost of £25 million, which is approximately £100 million in today’s money.
Meanwhile debit cards issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland bear the image of a yellow beach hut, one of the 19 which can be found on the picturesque shoreline at Findhorn.
Announcing plans last September to add another 11 huts to that number, the developer invited offers of over £32,500.
The north also featured in what was arguably the most popular TV series of the past decade, Peaky Blinders, which saw Portsoy taken over by film crews early in 2022, as the Moray Firth fishing village stood in for a smuggling hub off the coast of Canada.
Another award-winning show, The Crown, also made extensive use of local locations such as Macduff and Covesea Lighthouse near Lossiemouth, while Ardverikie House near Newtonmore doubled up as Balmoral Castle.
The list goes on with the all-time film classic Local Hero which was shot in Pennan during 1983. Then there was Edie, whose star Sheila Hancock scaled the imposing Mount Suilven near Lochinver despite being aged over 85 when it was made in 2017.
In addition, Clava Cairns near Culloden, has long been the beneficiary of what’s called the ‘Outlander effect’, which refers to the surge in tourism attributed to the popularity of the Outlander novels and TV series.
The site, thought to be a Bronze Age burial ground, was the inspiration for the fictional Craigh na Dun which serves as a time-travelling portal for the show’s heroine.
Finally, let’s round things of where they began with the news that Irn-Bru is launching a new limited edition flavour inspired by the Loch Ness Monster.
Nessie Nectar will be available next month.
