Half price, then free, for English Heritage members
This place is cared for by Historic Environment Scotland. First-year English Heritage members get 50% off the ticket price; members who have renewed get in free. Bring your valid membership card, and any pre-booked tickets, to ensure entry.
More information
In-person price; £10 booked online. One undated price table is published; recheck in spring 2027. Admission includes The Highlanders' Museum. Children under 7 free but need a ticket; up to two carers free per transaction; HM Forces with MOD90 card and Highlanders' Museum members free; Young Scot card holders pay £1 online; 25 per cent off with code GOOD25 for car-free visitors booking online. Audio guide on your own device included. Explorer Pass accepted. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.
In-person price; £5 booked online; under-7s free with a ticket. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.
In-person price; £8 booked online. English Heritage members: half price in your first membership year and free after your first renewal, on showing a valid card; bookings capped at six people per membership. Historic Scotland members free.
No charge for anyone.
Historic Scotland says parking at Fort George is free, with coach parking available; the part-tarmac, part-gravel car park has four accessible bays. The fort entrance is 200 m from the car park along a tarmac path and the ticket shop a further 15 m over cobbles. No booking or time limit is stated.
Driving pin: the visitor car park outside the fort, beside the Fort George Visitor Centre bus stop, 331 m east of HES's pin inside the fort. By bus: Stagecoach number 1 from Inverness to Fort George, with more frequent services to Ardersier, from which a signposted shore path leads 1.4 miles to the fort. By rail: Inverness, with regular trains from Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. By bike: 8.5 miles from Balloch and Nairn on National Cycle Network route 1, with a rack for ten bikes; 25 per cent off with code GOOD25 when you arrive car-free and book online.
Fort George is the finest example of 18th-century military engineering in the British Isles, built on a promontory into the Moray Firth after the Battle of Culloden as a secure base for George II's army. Designed by Lieutenant-General William Skinner and built by the Adam family of architects, it took 22 years to complete, by which time the Jacobite threat had passed, and it has never fired a shot in anger; it would cost nearly £1 billion today. Its landward defences housed a 1,600-strong garrison, with more than 80 guns and a magazine for 2,672 barrels of gunpowder. The ticket covers the mile-long rampart walk around an area the size of five football pitches, the grand magazine's weapons collection, recreated barrack rooms, the garrison chapel probably designed by Robert Adam, the dog cemetery for regimental mascots and The Highlanders' Museum, Scotland's largest regimental museum outside Edinburgh. It remains a working army base, home of the Black Watch, so expect bangs and helicopters, and watch for dolphins off the point.
The fort will be closed on Tuesday 27 October.
Closed Tue 27 Oct
Later dates are in the calendar.
Prices, non-members
| Ticket | On the day | Online |
|---|---|---|
| Adult | £11.00 | £10.00 |
| Concession | £9.00 | £8.00 |
| Child | £5.50 | £5.00 |
1 April to 30 September daily 9.30am to 5.30pm; 1 October to 31 March daily 10am to 4pm; last entry one hour before closing; closed 25 and 26 December and 1 and 2 January. Historic Scotland recommends booking in advance to guarantee entry. Notice: the fort is closed on Tuesday 27 October 2026. Fort George is a working military base and loud noises, bangs and low-flying helicopters are a regular occurrence; access to some spaces may be limited.
The fort is very large, 620 m end to end, mainly on one level with tarmac roads and pavements; ramps with a 1 in 6 gradient and a reinforced grass surface lead onto the ramparts; the drawbridge is unsuitable for visitors' own mobility scooters, for which an alternative route can be arranged by phone, and not all areas are reachable by scooter. Limited mobility scooters and wheelchairs first come first served; adapted toilets at the centre of the site; step-free shop; cafe, picnic area, self-service tea and coffee, water refill, ear defenders and benches. Pet dogs are allowed outdoors but not in the roofed areas; big drops on the ramparts.
Dogs: HES's dogs paragraph: visitors' dogs are allowed at Fort George but not in roofed areas (museum, barrack rooms, magazine, chapel, shop, cafe); the same page's facilities list carries a conflicting 'No dogs except assistance dogs' tag, read as a template default since the paragraph is site-specific and an April 2026 reviewer took a dog in. No lead rule published; a reviewer advises a lead because of big drops. Recheck. The rampart circuit and parade grounds inside the ticketed fort are outdoors and open to visitors' dogs; big drops on the ramparts.
Photo: Fort George from the air: the bastioned artillery fort and its barracks on a promontory in the Moray Firth. Graeme Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_George_from_the_Air_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3619373.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
No reviews yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to share your experience!
Dog access not confirmed
1.4 miles from Ardersier along a signposted shore path, also open to cyclists; buses from Inverness stop in Ardersier; free, fort admission separate.
