The Royal Yacht Britannia once served as travelling accommodation for Queen Elizabeth II. Today she is moored near Edinburgh and can be visited. But what is there to see?
The Royal Yacht is not anchored here, she is moored. Presumably for good. That becomes immediately clear when you see her on the pier in Leith: Almost grown together with the tower, held in place by a number of jetties and steel cables.
But despite her imprisonment, she still radiates the regal elegance and grandeur that her passengers have bestowed upon her. For almost half a century, the Royal Yacht carried the royal family to various places near and far. It took the current King Charles III and his then wife Diana on their honeymoon in the Mediterranean and Queen Elizabeth II regularly travelled to the Outer Hebrides.
This history attracts crowds of visitors today. What awaits them?
Firstly, a professionally run tourist attraction. After paying and even before the visitors enter the ship itself (tickets can be purchased here ), they are shown an exhibition and receive initial information until they stop at a person who patiently gives instructions on how to use the electric tour guide. A device reminiscent of old Nokia mobile phones from the 1990s.
We then head to the ship’s external stairwell and from there to the bridge.
This is where the tour guide is used for the first time. And he does his job well, explaining what equipment can be seen and how the crew worked with it. This quality continues through all of the following sightseeing points – a really well-done tour.
If you look over the railing, you can see the Bloodhound, a sailing yacht from the 1930s on which Prince Charles learnt to sail.
The direction of travel on the ship is clearly defined: From the top of the bridge, one deck down to the stern, where the royals could shelter from the weather in a covered area.
Visitors can take a break on the next floor up. There is a café on the now covered upper deck.
So far, everything looks like a good life on board. But as time goes by, a slight sense of trepidation creeps over you. Anxiety because you realise how the royals were also trapped here in their monarch role, which they could only escape with humour. One example is the Queen’s order that she should no longer be greeted. This is because the regulations stipulate that she must then salute back. It was also a bit uncomfortable because she had one cabin and her husband had another. Only Charles and Diana seemed to share a double bed here.
The formality becomes apparent when you enter the yacht’s great hall, which can still be hired for banquets today.
On the walls of the hall are many gifts given to the Queen on her travels, such as this carved shark.
Directly opposite is the Drawing Room, a bit like the royals’ living room.
The splendour doesn’t hide the fact that things were rather stiff here. There wasn’t much room for privacy. Nevertheless, the Queen did have a certain amount of freedom when choosing the furnishings. The silver on the ship, like that on the small side table, is still constantly being polished.
The tour leads further and further down via the staircase and catwalks and at some point you end up in the belly of the yacht. The difference in class becomes clearer with every deck you go down. While the captain still had his own luxury room upstairs, the simple crew quarters look completely different.
While everything was sumptuous upstairs, pragmatism prevails here. Whether in the infirmary …
… or in the laundry.
Finally, the engine room awaits visitors at the bottom. After that, the tour is over. However, the royal launch is still at the exit.
It is even older than the Britannia and dates back to 1938. Its task was to take passengers ashore if the ship was unable to dock.
The Rolls Royce Phantom V, which used to be housed under glass on the ship itself, also stands in front of the yacht. This vehicle was used when the Queen wanted to travel on land. The photo shows it still in its old berth on board the Britannia.
Visitors then leave the area again via the external staircase. With a good feeling, because the Royal Yacht Britannia offers a few hours of good entertainment and interesting insights.
Knowledge: About the Royal Yacht Britannia
The yacht is a Scot. She comes from the famous Clydebank Shipyards near Glasgow, where she was launched on 16 April 1953. Even then, she was not a racing boat, as the designers opted for a steam turbine drive, which produces less power than a diesel drive. However, it generates less vibration and feels more comfortable for passengers.
The yacht repeatedly took the Queen to the Scottish islands. She also had 696 missions abroad. Including delicate missions – without royals on board, of course. One example is the evacuation of around a thousand Britons from the civil war zone in Yemen in the 1980s. Such missions were certainly taken into account, as the Britannia could be quickly converted into a hospital ship in times of crisis.
The problem was that the operation, including the crew, cost the equivalent of 30 million euros a year. Too much, the Conservative government decided in 1997, and the ship was decommissioned. Since then, it has been moored in Leith.
Other little things that are interesting: She is one of the few ships whose name is not on the side. The golden stripe is gold leaf and is completely renewed after every blue coat of paint. And the Britannia has always been captained by an admiral – a unique circumstance.
Tips: The Ocean Terminal in Leith
If you’re already there, you might as well have a look around. If you like shopping, you don’t even need to leave the building. But technology and ship enthusiasts can see better things in the fresh air, because the Ocean Terminal is actually still an active harbour.
By the way: It is difficult to take a reasonably good photo of the Royal Yacht from the outside. The photo above was taken through a hole in the fence at the end of the basin where the yacht is moored. Another possibility are the outdoor areas of the restaurants on the balconies of the shopping centre.
Personal note: Royal Yacht still seen in service
When I travelled to Scotland several times in the early 1990s, a warship was once moored next to a smaller ship in Thurso harbour. As the nephew of a lieutenant captain, I naturally mainly tried to photograph the – I assume – frigate. I only took pictures of the smaller ship on the side. Today I know what it was: the Royal Yacht Britannia. The warship was the protection. I photographed the photo from the slide.
How to get there:
The Royal Yacht is located in Leith on Ocean Drive. You can actually park quite easily in the shopping centre by entering the address “EH6 6JJ” and “Ocean Dr” as the street in your navigation system. Brown signs also show the way. The Royal Yacht is also on the stop list for many Edinburgh bus tours, such as the Majestic Tour. It can now also be reached by tram, which was extended to this point in 2024.