Could change be on the cards for one of Inverness riverside's most prominent historic buildings?
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UHI has confirmed it is considering the future of its Ness Walk office base, once home to Inverness's first public hospital.
Getting in touch with UHI in response to rumours, a spokeswoman told the Courier: "Our facilities team regularly reviews office space to ensure we are making the best use of our resources across our Inverness sites and UHI partnership locations.
"During 2023, we will be moving the university executive, professional and support functions to our state-of-the-art teaching facilities on the Inverness Campus, including An Lòchran and the Centre for Health Science.
"These moves will enhance our links with strategic partners, ensuring the best possible teaching and learning outcomes for our students.
"Once the move is complete, we will be reviewing the best future use for our Ness Walk offices as part of our ongoing asset management programme."
While not definitive it does suggest the higher education institution is certainly thinking of moving on from Ness Walk.
If and when it does it will be just the latest change for a building that has been part of the cityscape for more than 200 years.
As the Courier's resident local historian Bill McAllister previously explained through his Down Memory Lane column, the building – completed in 1803 – first began its life as the Northern Infirmary, the city's first public hospital though it served the whole of the Highlands.
An extension including a three-storey façade and building over the pavilions was completed in 1866 and in 1898 a further expansion included an operating theatre block and the current covered entrance.
It became the ROYAL Northern Infirmary in 1929 after a visit by the then Duke and Duchess of York, parents of Queen Elizabeth II. It, and its successor, established essentially alongside it, are of course popularly known as "the RNI".
A plaque outside the building now acknowledges the fact that donations from the profits of the slave trade helped fund the original hospital's creation.
As archivist Alison Mason previously told the Courier, a "large portion of the bricks and mortar of the Highlands were built on slavery."
She said: "The records we hold at Highland Archive Centre show that there was a multi-level network of Highlanders in the Caribbean who were sending money back to invest in significant large institutional buildings such as the Royal Northern Infirmary and schools as well as to make improvements to many Highland estates."
The "old RNI's" days as the city's main hospital were numbered with the expansion of Raigmore from the 1960s onwards and the original hospital closed in 1989, becoming offices for the UHI at that point as well as private flats being built to the rear.
What could it become next?
