The Premiership club from the Highlands, who had never been beyond the semi-finals before, prevailed with an 86th minute winner from James Vincent just when it seemed they had lost control against the thrusting Championship underdogs.
Everything had started smoothly enough for Inverness, managed by former Falkirk boss John Hughes, after a brilliantly worked 38th minute goal from Marley Watkins had given them the lead and they were repelling all of Falkirk's pressure.
Yet when Caley's Carl Tremarco was sent off in the 75th minute for a foul on Blair Alston, it was the spur for Falkirk to equalise four minutes later with a Peter Grant header from a free kick.
With Falkirk looking by far the better team, Inverness's 10 men remarkably regained the lead after a swift counter-attack saw Watkins' shot saved and Vincent follow up to thrash home the winner.
The triumph concluded a wonderful year for Inverness, a club first celebrated for prompting one of the great newspaper headlines after upsetting mighty Celtic in this competition in 2000 -- "Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious".
This season, they also finished third in the top flight to secure a place in the Europa League in 2015-16 for the first time in their history.
(Writing by Ian Chadband; editing by Justin Palmer)
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