This summer might prove quiet in terms of Royal visits to the north and north-east, but the region has plenty of memorable visits by the late Queen to look back upon.
Take 1985, when she visited Inverness to open the new £30m Raigmore hospital, and a £3m extension to the harbour.
The visit was billed as a two hour whistle-stop, but Queen Elizabeth managed to squeeze in an impromptu walkabout in the town centre, to the delight of well-wishers.
Were you there?
Queen Elizabeth II 1985-08-15_03 (C)AJL Used P&J 16.08.1985 – “Smiles all round as the Queen stops to chat to a section of the large crowd outside Inverness Town House.” USED IN P&J 2024
The first thing eagle-eyed reporters noticed was that the Queen was wearing the same outfit she had worn on a visit to Inverness four years earlier.
It was a salmon-pink coat and matching hat, and only the brooch was different in 1987.
Coincidence
Buckingham Palace said it wasn’t unusual for the Queen to keep her clothes for a while, and it was a coincidence that she should have worn the same outfit on visits to Inverness.
The Royal party had disembarked that morning from the Royal yacht Britannia, which had been moored overnight off Munlochy Bay. Do readers have any photos of this unusual sight?
Queen Elizabeth’s Inverness Harbour visit
Accompanied by Provost Allan Sellar, the Queen was shown around the new harbour extension at Longman Quay.
It had been two and a half years in the making, and cost £3million.
The Queen unveiled a a plaque outside the new harbour office to mark the development.
At the harbour, Royal party had a chance to meet the Inverness Sea Cadets.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh inspected the guard of honour they formed to welcome them.
The Royal party also visited the Inverness Town House.
There they met local councillors and their wives. Who do you recognise in this picture?
The Queen signed the Visitors’ Book on a flower be-decked platform outside the town House.
The weather was dry and still for the day of the visit, encouraging huge crowds into the town centre.
They included Margaret Elizabeth Rhuedsil from Dallas, Texas, who managed to convey to the Queen that it was her 65th birthday, and receive a Royal ‘Happy Birthday’ in return.
Dream come true for Ohio family
The Burger family from Ohio said it was a dream come true when the Queen stopped to talk to them.
Here the Queen receives a rose from a well wisher.
The Horsfall family from Yorkshire were in town to visit Mrs Horsfall’s parents, and were thrilled when the Queen stopped to chat to them.
The children Alistair, 8, and Debbie, 6, presented her with a posy.
And three-year-old Andrew Bell of Inverness got a big surprise when an equerry in the royal party picked him up and swept him over the barricade on the High Street so he could present a bunch of flowers to the Queen.
He’s seen here being gently escorted back to his granny.
Raigmore’s new £30m building had 500 beds, and rooms with no more than six beds.
Each ward had its own day room.
There were nine operating theatres, a renal unit, an intensive therapy and coronary care unit, and a new accident and emergency department.
There were also new children’s and maternity units.
Queen Elizabeth’s whistle-stop tour of Inverness must have been exceptionally memorable for three-year-old John Macaskill.
Immaculately dressed in his kilt and jacket, he’s seen here handing his posy to the delighted Queen.
