Inverness Castle

Image: HLH / Ewen Weatherspoon

Inverness Castle

Image: HLH / Ewen Weatherspoon

Exterior of Castle Building – artist’s impression

Image: LDN Architects llp / The Highland Council

Project Details

IPW… was initially appointed by The Highland Council (THC) through High Life Highland (HLH) in early 2020 to develop an Outline Business Case (OBC) for the redevelopment of Inverness Castle.

Inverness Castle is an iconic Grade A listed building (of national and international significance) situated in the centre of the Inverness, on Castlehill above the banks of the River Ness. It was historically used by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) and The Highland Council for court and office purposes. However, the SCTS moved from the Castle in May 2020, transferring to the new Justice Centre in Inverness.

This provided a real opportunity to create a significant tourism asset for Inverness at the Castle that would act as a focal point for the promotion of tourism across, and draw visitors to, the Highlands.

Following the successful submission of the OBC to Scottish and UK Governments in 2021, IPW… has worked with HLH and THC on the following important components of the project:

  • Preparation of an application to the National Culture and Heritage Fund which attracted £995K of funding towards the project
  • Led the development of the successful Levelling Up Fund (LUF) Bid for the Inverness Zero Carbon Cultural Regeneration scheme, which was awarded funding of £19.8m in the first round of LUF funding in October 2021
  • Drafted a Full Business Case (FBC) for the project in January 2022 to support the final funding sign off from key partners
  • Completion of an Equalities Impact Assessment

The redeveloped Castle is expected to open in Spring 2025.

Project Lead

Kelly du Preez
Operations Director

Client Feedback

The quality of the work produced by the team at IPW… has been exceptional and we are certain that the outputs they produce have been a key factor in the success of the funding bids and in securing approval of the Business Cases for the project.

The team are very responsive and work extremely well when presented with challenging workloads and tight timescales.

They are a pleasure to work with and I would thoroughly commend their services to you.

Fiona Hampton, High Life Highland