THE DUKE of York was king of the castle yesterday as he braved wild winter weather on a day of engagements in North East Fife.

Despite the miserable conditions the duke was given a warm welcome at St Andrews Castle where he found out about an environmental programme taking place there and the involvement of the Historic Scotland education department, Historic Scotland rangers and school children from St Andrews Greyfriars Primary.

Earlier in the day he was given a tour of the Guardbridge Paper Mill.

During his 40-minute tour of St Andrews Castle—battered by a biting easterly wind and a barrage of hail showers—the royal visitor was introduced to various Historic Scotland staff. Escorted by the Lord Lieutenant of Fife, Margaret Dean, he was received by Historic Scotland head of marketing and policy, Jenny Hess, Fife Council convener John Simpson and other staff.

Following his escort through the relative warmth of the visitor centre, he emerged into the windswept garden area where Primary 4 pupils from Greyfriars were introduced to the duke.

The sight of the youngsters, accompanied by head teacher Kathleen McCormack and class teacher Agnes McCulloch, huddled patiently in the bitterly cold wind and rain, was not lost on the duke when he asked, “Shouldn’t you be doing this inside rather than outside?” The children were clearly excited at meeting the duke however, and did not seem to notice the cold as they laughed and explained how they were helping to make bird bath and bat boxes.

From there, the duke moved on to a second group of pupils and helped them plant seeds as part of their wild garden environmental project, being run in association with the castle.

The duke asked them if they knew what they were planting and hoped they would look after them. He commented, “You’ve got to make sure no weeds get in there otherwise they won’t grow!” This was followed by a tour of the garden.

As the rain got heavier and turned to sleet, the duke was then escorted by St Andrews Castle monument manager David Eaton through the side gate for a brief tour of the castle.

Rounding off his trip, the duke presented Historic Scotland with a gold award which St Andrews Castle has been awarded through VisitScotland’s green tourism business scheme.

Earlier, the duke spent some time on a private visit to the Guardbridge Mill, run by Curtis Fine Papers.

He also met children from Guardbridge Primary and was given a tour by operations director Paul Egan.