The former Northern Lighthouse Board’s tender Windsor Castle, which has been lying in the river Fal since 2000, has been purchased by The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust, who plan to operate her as a floating luxury hotel. The vessel will be converted to a 25-bedroom ‘boutique’ hotel, and will be moored adjacent to the former Royal yacht Britannia in Leith.
Built in 1963 by Blythswood Shipbuilding Co, Glasgow as Fingal, the vessel operated by the Northern Lighthouse Board out of Oban, and later Stromness, maintaining aids to navigation around the Scottish coast, before being purchased by Tamahine Shipping in 2000. She then joined their cargo ship Tamamima moored in the river Fal, where she was renamed Windsor Castle and became something of a fixture on the river.
Following a dry-dock inspection in Falmouth, she was towed to Scotland, where she will undergo an 18-month conversion in Leith, and is scheduled to open in spring 2016. She will be berthed permanently next to Britannia.
