PICTURES: New Inverness Remembered book in the shops in time for Christmas

The latest book in the Inverness Remembered series – Volume XVIII – is now on sale in local bookshops. Just like the previous volumes in this ever-popular series, Volume XVIII is packed with photographs from the city’s story.

The images, of course, capture memories – of incidents great and small, of city-wide importance and of families, all shared by readers willing to contribute their photos to this annual celebration of what is Inverness.

The book marks a number of significant anniversaries this time. Both Central School and the Caledonian Canal have reached their 200th birthday.

"We have a range of images around the theme of the Canal," said Jim Miller, the book's editor, "including some dramatic shots taken when the water basins have been drained for maintenance."

Highland Rugby Football Club celebrates its centenary this year, and there are a range of team photos to record the moment, including the earliest team photograph to survive that we know of – from the 1923-24 season.

Striplings in comparison in the age stakes are Loganair, now 60 years old, and the Inverness Local History Forum, founded 30 years ago. The Loganair birthday has a poignant edge, of course, as many Invernessians will recall that its founder, the construction engineer Willie Logan, was himself killed in an air crash on the hill of Craig Dunain in 1966.

There is a commemorative page in honour of John Cobb who met his fate in September 1952, 70 years ago, when the boat in which he was trying to win the world water speed record on Loch Ness broke up.

In the That Was the Year that Was section, we focus on 2001, the year Inverness officially became a city. There was, of course, a lot more happening then, as the photographs show.

Sometimes damaged photos or cuttings from newspapers come our way. We use the photos if we judge them to be of particular interest but newspaper cuttings can seldom be reproduced for both copyright and technical reasons – the method of printing in old papers does not make for clear scanning.

We have also noticed how digital images sourced from social media are becoming more common. At times these have been recorded with a resolution that works against much enlargement. Old-fashioned hard images from the days of traditional cameras often have a greater clarity. We welcome all images but would ask anyone sending digital images to check that the resolution is at least 600 dpi.

"I sometimes wonder how many more photos there are out there," said Jim. "Will we get enough to make up the book? But somehow they keep coming, and it’s never too soon to start rooting in the attic or the store cupboard to find some to send in for 2023.

"We make every reasonable effort to avoid mistakes but we always feel a few have may have slipped past us," he continued. "But we always like to hear about corrections and when possible publish them in the succeeding volume."

• Inverness Remembered Volume XVIII is now available, priced £15.99, at local outlets in the city or by phone order on 01463 246575.

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