There was a time when there were only two vaguely plausible reasons to visit Inverness: a battle fought more than 2½ centuries ago and a legendary monster. Now the once sleepy Highland capital is a buzzing hub, with one of Britain’s fastest expanding conurbations, a burgeoning immigrant population and even its own successful football team.

There’s a metropolitan maturity about Inverness that comes with its recently acquired city status; a feeling that important decisions are being made behind the windows of its factories and office blocks.

The second language of the Highlands is no longer Gaelic but Polish. Thousands of immigrants have flooded into the area since their homeland joined the European Union, finding work in the catering and fish-processing industries. Among those welcoming the fresh wave of settlers are Inverness Caledonian Thistle, which saw the newcomers as a chance to boost the football team’s fan base. The club has taken to advertising its games in both English and Polish in the local newspaper.

The downside of all this expansion is that, outside of the city centre, Inverness has lost its wide-eyed, country town quaintness. In place of its winding roads and community feel are industrial estates, dual carriageways and a different Tesco hypermarket for every man, woman and child within a 20-mile radius.

The speed of development has made architecture one of its many growth areas. Among those who have pitched in with ideas on how to solve the problem of homeless Highlanders has been the Prince of Wales, who proposed a replica of his innovative Poundbury village development in Dorset, and Andres Duany, the Florida-based architect who designed the real-life community used as the setting for The Truman Show, the cult Jim Carrey film that satirised reality television. Duany has been hired by Moray Estates to create a blueprint for a 10,000-home community between Inverness and Nairn.

But the upside is that the city centre has a cosmopolitan vibrancy — with a host of new bars and restaurants — and a welcoming mood that makes it a perfect base for exploring at least some of the thousands of square miles of Highlands that surround it. That 18th-century battle remains a big draw, of course. Culloden was the last to be fought on British soil and the newly refurbished £8m visitor centre, scheduled to open in April 2007, promises to be an appropriate memorial.

The Loch Ness monster, on the other hand, remains an obsession, particularly among American tourists determined to be the first to be photographed next to it. They are catered for at the Loch Ness 2000 exhibition at the Drumnadrochit hotel and the nearby Original Loch Ness visitor centre.

Driving north up the A9, through Tain (famed for its pottery), Golspie and Brora, surrounded by lush vegetation and rugged sea cliffs, the urban buzz of Inverness is quickly forgotten. I stopped at Tain for a haircut and visited possibly the oldest barber in the Highlands. Now in his eighties, he has been cutting hair in the village for the past 60 years and remembered the first motorised cabs in Inverness, which put things into perspective.

By the time we reached Helmsdale, the furthest north I had ever been, it felt like we were coming to the ends of the Earth. It was difficult to imagine that a further 50-odd miles separated us from the northernmost tip of Scotland.

Details: The Waterside hotel (01463 233 065) is ideally located on the banks of the River Ness. Opened in June 2003, it has comfortable accommodation and good food. Prices, inclusive of a full cooked breakfast and taxes, start at £70 per night for a standard double room. A three- course meal from its table d’hôte menu is £16 per person.

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