A ship once tasked with carrying lighthouse keepers, supplies, and maintenance crews around Scotland’s remote coastline began a very different chapter in 2019. After decades at sea and years in retirement, the vessel was transformed into Fingal, a luxury floating hotel permanently moored at Leith in Edinburgh.
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According to Fingal, the project turned a working vessel into a place where guests could sleep inside its former hull, dine aboard the ship and experience spaces shaped by its maritime past. The conversion also gave the vessel a new role in modern tourism while preserving its connection to its former work. Fingal’s story began in 1963, when the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) commissioned the vessel from Blythswood Shipbuilding Company in Glasgow. It was the last ship built by the yard. Registered in Leith, it spent about 30 years based in Oban before moving to Stromness in Orkney for its final six years of NLB service.
From lighthouse tender to retirement
Fingal was not a regular passenger steamer. Instead, it assisted the Scottish lighthouse service by transporting personnel, equipment, and supplies to lighthouses far from the mainland. For lighthouse crews stationed in remote locations, the boat’s arrival could signal the end of a long separation from their families on the mainland.
According to National Historic Ships , after retiring from Northern Lighthouse Board service in 2000, the vessel was sold to a private owner and renamed Windsor Castle. It remained in working order and was moored on the River Fal in Cornwall for the next 14 years. In 2014, the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust acquired the vessel. After a survey in Falmouth, it was towed to Leith, where plans were developed to convert the former lighthouse tender into a hotel. The Trust sought an additional source of revenue alongside the Royal Yacht Britannia, particularly because overnight accommodation was not permitted aboard the former royal yacht. Converting the lighthouse tender into a floating hotel provided a way to add hospitality facilities while preserving its maritime character.
A ship rebuilt around its past
The renovation involved gutting the ship and rebuilding its interior for hotel use while retaining its character as a former lighthouse tender. The new layout included bedrooms, restaurants, event spaces and elevators. The original funnel was removed to create space for two additional decks, with the upper deck accommodating the Lighthouse Restaurant and Bar and The Bridge, a private dining area. The upper section of the funnel was later relocated to the new deck to preserve the vessel's original appearance. Accommodation was added throughout the ship, with the final layout including main-deck cabins as well as larger rooms and suites created during the reconstruction. National Historic Ships records 14 cabins on the main deck, in addition to the larger accommodation and presidential suite elsewhere on the vessel.
From working vessel to living heritage
Records show that Fingal opened to the public in January 2019, marking its full transformation from a lighthouse tender into a hotel. The Port of Leith is central to Edinburgh’s maritime history, giving Fingal a fitting waterfront setting. Beyond the hotel conversion, the design team added several details to enhance the guest experience. This is evident in the hull, which forms part of the accommodation, and in the nautical elements that link it to its previous life. Fingal was not a historic building in its original setting but a 73-metre-long ship that had spent years carrying people and supplies to remote lighthouses in Scotland.
