The cemetery is located on a low but very prominent hill 1.5 km SW of the city centre, between the Caledonian Canal and the River Ness.

The hilltop offers a wide panorama on Inverness city, the Moray Firth and on the Ness Valley.

In 1753 the hill, which ground was considered too poor in quality for agriculture, was planted with trees, mainly Pinus sylvestris.

Although its design is attributed to Charles Heath Wilson, a great deal of the work was done by George Grant Mackay, a Scottish civil engineer.

Among them can be remembered the memorial monument to Mary Anne Lyall, of Andrew Davidson's (1841–1925), or the mausoleum of Henry Christie, with an armed angel statue guarding its marble door.