The

Lord-Lieutenant A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibility ...

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

is the British

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

's personal representative in an area which has been defined since 1975 as consisting of the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

districts of

, Badenoch and Strathspey, and

Lochaber Lochaber ( ; gd, Loch Abar) is a name applied to a part of the Scottish Highlands. Historically, it was a provincial lordship consisting of the parishes of Kilmallie and Kilmonivaig, as they were before being reduced in extent by the creation ...

, in Scotland, and this definition was renewed by the

s (Scotland) Order 1996. The area of the lieutenancy used to be the

county of Inverness Inverness-shire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Nis) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Covering much of the Highlands and Outer Hebrides, it is Scotland's largest county, though one of the smallest in populati ...

, which was abolished as a local government area by

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered local government in Scotland on 16 May 1975. The Act followed and largely implemented the report of the Royal Commission on Local Gove ...

. The districts were created, by the 1973 act, as districts of the two-tier

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

and abolished as local government areas under the

Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 (c. 39) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which created the current local government structure of 32 unitary authorities covering the whole of Scotland. It abolished the two-tier st ...

, which turned the Highland region into a unitary council area.

List of Lord-Lieutenants of Inverness

Sir James Grant, 8th Baronet Sir James Grant of Grant, 8th Baronet, (19 May 1738, Moray – 18 February 1811, Castle Grant) was a Scottish landowner, politician and Chief of Clan Grant. He went by the nickname of ''the good Sir James''. Life Grant was the son of Sir Ludov ...

17 March 1794 – 1809 *

Francis Ogilvy-Grant, 6th Earl of Seafield Francis William Ogilvy-Grant, 6th Earl of Seafield (6 March 1778 – 30 July 1853) was a Scottish nobleman, a Member of Parliament and is listed as the 25th Chief of The Clan Grant. The names Grant and Ogilvie The family of Grant of Grant, ...

2 September 1809 – 30 July 1853 *

Thomas Alexander Fraser, 12th Lord Lovat Thomas Alexander Fraser, 12th Lord Lovat and 1st Baron Lovat, KT (17 June 1802 – 28 June 1875) was a Scottish nobleman. He was the 21st Chief ''MacShimidh'' of the Clan Fraser of Lovat, succeeding the notorious Jacobite Simon Fraser, 11th L ...

26 August 1853 – 1873 *

Simon Fraser, 13th Lord Lovat Simon Fraser, 13th Lord Lovat and 2nd Baron Lovat (21 December 1828 – 6 September 1887) was a Scottish nobleman and soldier. He was responsible for overseeing the reconstruction of Beaufort Castle, and was the 22nd Chief of Clan Fraser of Lova ...

18 April 1873 – 6 September 1887 *

Donald Cameron, 24th Lochiel Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

17 October 1887 – 30 November 1905 *Alfred Donald Mackintosh 11 December 1905 – 14 November 1938 * Colonel Sir Donald Cameron, 25th Lochiel 2 January 1939 – 11 October 1951 *

Alexander Godfrey Macdonald, 7th Baron Macdonald Alexander Godfrey Macdonald, 7th Baron Macdonald, Order of the British Empire, MBE (27 June 1909 – 1970) was a grandson of Ronald Bosville-Macdonald, 6th Baron Macdonald. Born Alexander Godrey Bosville-Macdonald, he changed his surname to Ma ...

28 January 1952 – 29 November 1970 * Sir Donald Hamish Cameron, 26th Lochiel 31 January 1971 – 1985 *Lachlan Mackintosh 25 October 1985 – 26 December 1995 *

James Gray, Baron Gray of Contin James Hector Northey "Hamish" Gray, Baron Gray of Contin, (28 June 1927 – 14 March 2006) was a Scottish Conservative politician and life peer. Gray was born in Inverness and educated at the Inverness Royal Academy. His father owned an In ...

5 December 1996 – 2002 * Donald Angus Cameron, 27th Lochiel 19 November 2002 – 3 August 2021 *James Robert Edwards Wotherspoon 4 August 2021 - present

References

Inverness-shire {{Scotland-gov-stub