Video: Royal opening for Stromness Warehouse Buildings

The Warehouse Buildings in Stromness were given an official opening by HRH Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester earlier today, Tuesday.

The Duke began a two-day visit to Orkney, arriving this morning. He toured the West Mainland today, visiting the St Magnus Kirk in Birsay to commemorate 900 years since the death of Earl Magnus and St Peter’s Kirk at the Bay of Skaill, which he last visited in 2003 to mark its refurbishment.

HRH then spent time in Stromness meeting members of the Stromness RNLI to mark 150 years since the establishment of the town’s Lifeboat station, before formally opening the Warehouse Buildings, the council facility which was completed in May 2015 to house the town’s library, council customer service provision and Police Scotland public counter.

At the opening, where he unveiled a special plaque, he commented: “It is a great pleasure for me to come to Stromness and play a tiny part in the history of your splendid town. This clearly is a key site here, right in front of the docks, and you have turned a whole lot of odd sheds of rather dubious purposes into a building which will prove very useful to the community in so many different ways.

“I hope that those who come here will appreciate it was an act of imagination by those who are in authority and I congratulate those who designed it and built it. I hope that all who come here will feel that they are in a very friendly useful place.”

The Duke also enjoyed a tour of the Stromness Museum and visited the Hall of Clestrain, home of Arctic explorer John Rae.

This evening, he will attend a service in the St Rognvald Chapel of St Magnus Cathedral and attend the Annual General Meeting of The Society of The Friends of St Magnus Cathedral, of which he is Patron.

HRH will continue his visit tomorrow with a trip to some of Orkney’s outer isles, marking the Golden Jubilee of Loganair’s North Isles Air Service which commenced in September 1967.

Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester is the youngest grandchild of King George V and Queen Mary.

He has visited Orkney on two previous occasions — in 2003 to mark the refurbishment of St Peter’s Kirk at the Bay of Skaill and in 2008 to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of The Society of The Friends of St Magnus Cathedral in 1958.