The Prince and Princess of Wales have spent their 14th wedding anniversary today on the Isle of Mull, where they visited a community centre and Kate revealed her unusual Christmas present as well as a new hobby
The Princess of Wales has revealed she has taken up beekeeping and received a chainsaw for Christmas as she immersed herself in nature to recover from cancer. The future queen today joined husband Prince William on the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, as they celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary, mucking in at the community hall in the village of Tobermory, and asking for tips on carpentry and beekeeping.
Kate, who has previously told how nature became her family’s ‘sanctuary’ after her diagnosis and during chemotherapy last year, told a local beekeeper how she was “desperate for any tips” for her new hobby. Reminiscing with locals about their private visit 20 years ago, the Princess also revealed how she still has two watercolour paintings she bought in the town as a student hanging in a bedroom at home.
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They also spoke about the three children they have had since their last trip, their love of soft play, and how the Princess visited the Waitrose cafe with baby Prince George for lack of any local mother and baby groups to take him to then. The couple began their two-day stay on Mull with a visit to the Aros community centre, built in the 19th century and home to events from wedding receptions to pantos, yoga classes and ceilidhs.
Upstairs in the hall, the Prince and Princess were shown some of the refurbishment work, meeting the painter, carpenter and volunteers. The Prince spotted a photograph of his late grandmother and grandfather’s visit to the island in 1956, proclaiming it ‘amazing’.
Shown a small work station, where Tom Nelson was making a new ‘surround’ for the community food bank fridge with wooden tiles on its roof, the Prince and Princess agreed to use a nail gun to add their own. William went first, sniffing the wood as he asked what kind it was and taking instructions on the tool.
He fired several nails in successfully before handing it over to his wife, advising her not to pull the trigger then and there “otherwise our trip will be remembered for all the wrong reasons”. Crouching down and adding her tiles matter-of-factly, the Princess was heard to say “I’ve been given a chainsaw” for Christmas.
Banjo, admiring her work, told William “What can’t she do!”. William, acknowledging his wife’s prowess at trying things out on public engagements, replied: “That always happens.” The downstairs of the hall has been converted partly into a new soft play, complete with pretend play area and mini cafe for young children and their families.
It is newly-painted with a puffin mural, which the Prince and Princess were invited to paint a flower on to. The Prince ushered his wife to do the first one, joking that she is the artistic one and that there is “no competition”. The Princess took her time painting a small white flower, persuading her husband to do his own.
“I think we’ve found Banksy,” joked Banjo Beale, the interior designer and television presenter who lives locally and is working on the renovation. “It’s you.”
“Come on, please please,” Kate asked William, handing him a paintbrush and palette, and patting him on the back and briefly leaning her head on his shoulder afterwards. At a pop up market on the other side of the harbour, Kate, 43, revealed how she has taken up beekeeping at her family home in Norfolk, as she continues her recovery from cancer.
The princess spent so long speaking to Sheila Barnard at a pop up market in the village of Tobermory on the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, that her husband Prince William jokingly suggested he was going to stage an intervention. Moving along several stall holders from local businesses, William and Kate – known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay when in Scotland, stopped to talk to Sheila and her husband Tim who have been keeping bees for more than 30 years.
Sheila told the princess how their nine colonies of the native black bee are the only variety that survive over 5 degrees during the harsh winters on the island. Kate said: “This is my summer project, I’ve only just started. At our home in Norfolk, I’m not there much during term time but during the summer I am hoping to really immerse myself in the process. I find it absolutely fascinating. I’ll have to take your number for some tips!”
Sheila and her husband Tim moved to the island 32 years ago from their home in Buckinghamshire and ‘revitalised’ the Mull and Iona Beekeeping Association, bringing together other locals fascinated by the creatures. Sheila told how they make scented candles from beeswax and cultivate the honey at the end of the season, in October, so “we never steal from the bees”.
As Kate asked Sheila “what sort of advice would you have for a novice, I’m desperate for any tips”, William leant in and joked to his wife: “This sounds like a conversation that could go on for a while so you’ll have to take Sheila’s number.”
The Prince and Princess, who are staying in a self-catering cottage on the island tonight, spent more than an hour walking through the small town’s harbour front road, shaking hands and taking photographs with locals and holidaymakers.
Many recalled their previous stay, described by the Prince of Wales as being in “2002…2004… somewhere around then”, and previously royal visitors including the late Queen and Prince Philip in 1956 and regular visits from Princess Anne as she pops into the shops while sailing around the islands off the west coast of Scotland.
The Prince said he could always confirm whether he had visited a place before because he is usually asked to sign the visitors’ book, joking that he may have had “one or two ciders” during his long weekend on Mull as a student. The couple will tomorrow meet forest rangers working to protect the stunning natural environment on the island and travel by ferry to the neighbouring island of Iona.