Queen Consort Camilla has spoken about the “precious time” she has spent in the northeast of Scotland – telling staff and students at Aberdeen University that it feels like she is “coming home” on visits to the institution.
During a visit to the university’s new science teaching hub on Wednesday, the Queen Consort said it was a “huge pleasure” to visit the site after it opened last year.
Addressing staff and students, she said: “Coming to this university, and to this city, has always felt a bit like coming home to me.”
Camilla, who was made chancellor of the university in 2013, said this was first because her father’s family “came from this part of Scotland”.
She added: “Secondly because my husband and I are lucky enough to spend precious time each year in Aberdeenshire. “And finally, because 10 years ago I received the great honour of being installed as chancellor of this very special university.”
Since taking on the role, she said she has “watched with pride” as the university has “gone from strength to strength”.
However, she added: “My achievements as chancellor over the last decade seem rather modest in comparison. “I was told in 2013 that one element of my role was to defend the university so that ‘raven wolves do not invade the college and its flock’.”
She quipped it was “perhaps more by luck than judgment” that this has not happened yet.
At the moment, both Camilla and King Charles III are relishing time at the Scottish residence, Birkhall, which has been described as “a unique haven of coziness and character” by the King himself.
The home is where he and Camilla spent some of their honeymoons following their wedding in 2005. Charles inherited Birkhall from his grandmother the Queen Mother when she died in 2002 and often spends summers there with his wife.
He also inherited his grandmother’s Scottish holiday home, the Castle of Mey, later opening a bed-and-breakfast within the property’s grounds.
