Reddit reviews The Highland Clearances

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Burke-Hare-Ghouls-Brian-Bailey/dp/1840185759
Burke and hare snatched bodies and then moved on to murder in Edinburgh in 1828 to sell to a doctor who wanted cadavers.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Highland-Clearances-John-Prebble/0140028374
The Highland clearances, English Lords and Scottish royalists force people of off the land creating poverty and destitution.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloody-Scottish-History-Bruce-Durie/dp/0752482890
This one focuses on Glasgow but he has other books it covers a broad range of events.

Edit.. Add one on

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Brother-Surgeons-Garet-Rogers/0552087556

This book is expensive wow, the hunter brothers pioneered all sorts of medical things they were from my home town and the old house is a museum. plenty online about them.

Are you trying to write a novel? Because it sounds like you're trying to write a novel.

What it feels like to live in Inverness...is the same as it feels to live in any other 21st century large town/small city. Except with 5x more tourists. I really don't know what you're hoping to hear, but honestly, it's probably not much different to where you live now.

I can say that with a fair degree of certainty, because I moved from the US to Scotland several years ago myself.

It's just not that different. Sorry to burst your bubble.

But while I'm at it, I may as well piss on your parade too, and tell you that there's no way that, as a plumber, you're ever going to get a visa to settle in the UK. It just doesn't work that way, and it doesn't matter how much history and culture you've absorbed.

But, if you're still wanting to absorb it, I'd recommend Scotland:
The Story of a Nation and The Scottish Nation: A Modern History as good overviews to start with.

If you're then wanting to drill down into particular periods, Edinburgh University Press has a series, New History of Scotland, which includes a number of books on specific eras/topics.

For Highland-specific history, the one everyone has read is John Prebble's The Highland Clearances, but of course there are others.

In general, just avoid anything by Neil Oliver.

Eh, I don't know about pen-pals, but you could certainly chat with folks over on r/scotland.