Former lighthouse tender to become luxury hotel
(Picture: Tom Fish)
A former lighthouse tender which was once a familiar sight in the seas around Orkney, is to be converted to a luxury hotel and based in Leith.
The organisation who own the highly popular visitor attraction, Royal Yacht Britannia have announced that it has acquired the iconic heritage vessel Windsor Castle.
Launched in August 1963, she was the last ship built by the Blythswood Shipbuilding Company, Glasgow, and was previously the Northern Lighthouse Board’s (NLB) tender Fingal.
In a near £1 million investment, this classically designed ship is to be converted into a 25 bedroom luxury hotel.
She will be berthed permanently, adjacent to Britannia in Edinburgh’s historic port of Leith.
She was Leith registered but spent most of her NLB service working out of Oban for 30 years, followed by her last 6 years, based in Stromness.
At 239 feet long, she is nearly two-thirds of the size of Britannia. The vessel was sold by the NLB in 2000 to Tamahine Shipping and has been maintained to the highest standards ever since, at her berth on the River Fal in Cornwall.
The ship is scheduled to arrive in Leith during the week of 25 August, 2014, and undergo an 18 month conversion, scheduled to open in Spring 2016.