Inverness Castle makes £1.6m loss in first year open to visitors after £47m refurb

Highland Council has projected that Inverness Castle will lose £1.6m this year – its first as a visitor attraction – after initially forecasting a £900,000 profit.

The local authority had agreed to underwrite any losses for the first 12 months. Visitor numbers did not meet expectation.

The former court house opened in February after a £47m refurbishment.

The council’s arm’s-length organisation High Life Highland, which manages the site, has confirmed that visitor numbers and income levels are currently trailing below budgeted forecasts.

Tickets for adults cost £22 – or £20 if pre-booked online. Prices are cheaper for children and pensioners.

SNP council leader Raymond Bremner told colleagues it was an exciting project but described the financial situation as “disappointing”.

Councillor Alasdair Christie, who leads the council’s Liberal Democrat opposition group, was surprised by the revelation but he believes ticket prices are excessive.

Asked why he thought it had made a loss, he told STV News: “People will need to review that and a recovery plan will need to be done fairly urgently.

“It’s an important tourist attraction. It’s a beautiful building. We’ve got to find a way to make it pay.

“Some of the areas they need to look at are the pricing, review some of the exhibitions, maybe the catering. And I would expect that to be all covered in a thorough review of the operation to date.”

In a joint statement, the council and High Life Highland said: “Visitor numbers and the associated income from retail and catering sales have been lower than originally projected. This reflects a combination of factors, including a later-than-planned winter opening, which reduced the lead-in time normally required to develop key tourism markets and group bookings.

“Launching a new and distinctive visitor attraction is a long-term investment. Building awareness and establishing market presence takes time, particularly when introducing a unique experience to the tourism market.”

It continued: “More than 80,000 visitors from local, national and international markets have visited the Inverness Castle Experience since its opening, demonstrating the strong interest and growing profile. A new five-year strategy is currently being developed to build on this progress and support the attraction’s long-term success.”