Inverness Kirking of the Council parade street closure details announced by Highland Council
The annual Kirking of the Council parade in Inverness will take place early next month.
The parade and church service will take place on Sunday, September 8, and Highland Council has announced details of the event and the temporary road closures in effect during it.
The Kirking of the Council service will be held in Ness Bank Church and led by the Rev. Stuart Smith.
Staff and members of Highland Council along with guests from the University of the Highlands and Islands and community councils will parade, led by the City of Inverness Pipe Band along with uniformed youth groups and school representatives.
The colourful kirking parade begins in Inverness High Street at 10.30am and travels towards the Town House where they will be joined by civic leaders, councillors and representatives from various organisations serving the city. Students and teachers from the Maria-Theresia-Gymnasium Augsburg from Inverness’s twinned city of Augsburg will also be present.
The parade will then make its way from Inverness Town House down Bridge Street, left onto Castle Road and to Ness Bank Church.
The service in Ness Bank Church - which is open to all - begins at 11am. Due to the popularity of the kirking those intending to join the congregation are asked to arrive in good time to take their seats. After the service the procession will then form up in Castle Road before returning to the Town House.
To enable the parade to take place, several roads will be closed. The High Street will be shut from its junction with Eastgate to its junction with Bridge Street between 10.30am and 10.45am, and again between 12.10pm and 12.25pm.
Bridge Street will be closed from its junction with High Street to its junction with Bank Street, between 10.35am and 10.50am, and again between 12.05pm and 12.20pm.
And Castle Road will be shut from its junction with Bank Street to its junction with Haugh Road, between 10.40am and 10.55am, and also between midday and 12.15pm.
The kirking is the oldest annual gathering staged in Inverness and brings more than 400 years of tradition and pageantry to the streets of the Highland capital. The kirking is usually held on the morning of the second Sunday in September and marks the official end of the Inverness Summer Festivals programme.
