Abertarff House
Abertarff House, tucked just off Inverness's main streets, is the oldest surviving house in the city, dating to around 1593 and notable for its distinctive circular turnpike stair projecting from the front of the building, a rare survival from a period when most of Inverness's older buildings were lost to later redevelopment, fires, or the general churn of a working Highland town. It was originally the town house of the Fraser family of Abertarff and has survived centuries of change largely intact in its basic structure, now looked after by the National Trust for Scotland.
It's a modest, unshowy building rather than a major visitor attraction in its own right, valued mainly as a rare physical link to 16th-century Inverness in a city that otherwise shows relatively little of its older architectural layers. It's best appreciated as a brief stop while exploring Inverness on foot, a chance to see genuine late-medieval Highland urban architecture rather than the reconstructed or much-altered buildings found elsewhere in the city.
Abertarff House FAQs
Interior access is limited and varies over time, as the building has been used for various purposes including office space, so it's best to check current access before visiting specifically for the interior.
It's the oldest surviving house in Inverness, dating to around 1593, making it a rare physical link to the city's pre-modern history.
As an exterior-focused stop, it only takes a few minutes, making it easy to combine with a walk around central Inverness.
There's generally no fee to view the exterior; any interior access, when available, may have its own arrangements.
It's a rounded stone stair tower projecting from the building's front, a distinctive and easily recognisable feature of Scottish architecture from this period.
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