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Emma Shacklock

King Charles and Queen Camilla paid low-key visit to royal wedding venue as they relocate during their Scottish holiday

King Charles and Queen Camilla have paid a visit to Crathie Kirk. Seen here King Charles and Queen Camilla during a visit to Alloway Main Street

King Charles and Queen Camilla have paid a visit to a royal wedding venue as they relocated during their Scottish holiday. 


After what has already been an intensely busy year King Charles and Queen Camilla are currently enjoying a well-deserved summer holiday in Scotland, largely out of the public eye. Their Majesties are understood to have kicked off their break at the Castle of Mey in Caithness but have now made the move to Aberdeenshire. Reports have suggested that they could be primarily based at Birkhall with time also spent at Balmoral Castle, but either way King Charles and Queen Camilla paid a visit to a very special wedding venue on 13th August. 

(Image credit: Gannet77 via Getty)

As per Hello! the royal couple were pictured privately making their way towards Crathie Kirk near the Balmoral Estate, likely to attend a church service. King Charles was driving with a beaming Queen Camilla beside him in the passenger seat and Crathie Kirk holds special significance for the Royal Family. This parish church is where Princess Anne and Sir Timothy Laurence married back in 1992.

Unlike Prince William and Kate’s wedding which was on a beautiful spring day, the Princess Royal chose to tie the knot on 12th December. She’d previously been married to Captain Mark Phillips with whom she had two children, Peter and Zara, before they divorced in April 1992. Princess Anne had to marry Sir Timothy in a Church of Scotland church as it wasn’t permitted for divorcees with their spouses still living to marry again in the Church of England at the time.

(Image credit: EPA/AFP via Getty Images)

However, this wasn’t Princess Anne’s wedding heartbreak as just a few days earlier the Royal Family had received a life-changing announcement concerning King Charles. It was announced in a Buckingham Palace statement that the then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana were separating after 11 years of marriage. The late Princess of Wales is understood not to have attended Princess Anne’s Crathie Kirk wedding three days later though King Charles did.

King Charles and Queen Camilla’s low-key visit to this church this year isn’t the first time he’s returned to his sister’s wedding venue by any means. The church is the Royal Family’s regular place of worship when they’re staying at Balmoral. Earlier this year His Majesty reportedly attended a service at Crathie Kirk after heading to Scotland following the traditional family Christmas at Sandringham in Norfolk.

(Image credit: Photo by Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images)

He and Queen Camilla also attended a service on their first wedding anniversary in 2006. King Charles and Queen Camilla might well attend more services at the church before their holiday in Scotland draws to a close this year. 

It’s expected that members of the Royal Family will be joining them during their time in Aberdeenshire as they did during Queen Elizabeth’s reign, though it’s not known if Princess Anne will be amongst them. She was in Scotland earlier this year for Royal Week 2023 and engagements and will probably be there in winter 2024, if not before, as she’s the Patron of Scottish Rugby and regularly watches home matches during the Six Nations Championship. 

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