Royal Yacht Britannia – all aboard for gluten free!
If you are visiting Edinburgh, I really recommend a visit to the Royal Yacht Britannia, the floating home of the royal family for over 40 years. It is a fascinating insight into the life of the royals, but even if you are not a fan, it is still really interesting as a floating home. It was voted the UK’s number one tourist attraction for 2014 on TripAdvisor.
My gluten free Edinburgh research had not flagged up the Royal Yacht Britannia, but it is wonderful to be able to have a gluten free lunch or a cup of tea and a gluten free cake in the Royal Deck Tea Room.
All the soups are gluten free and a gluten free roll is provided. You can also ask for a sandwich as a lunch option.
For snacks there are gluten and wheat free cakes.
The menu is available online (see link below).
There is an audio tour which covers five decks of the yacht.
The Queen’s bedroom is shown to the right. I believe single beds were used to use Queen Victoria’s bed linen. There is only one double bed on the ship, which is in the honeymoon suite 🙂
Below is the sun room on the back deck where the royals relaxed.
Formal entertaining was done on board – it wasn’t all holidays and fun!
You will find many family photos around the ship – relaxed family photos that are very different from the posed photos you usually see of the royals.
The laundry is bigger than usual as the yacht was designed to double as a hospital ship if needed.
The Royal Yacht Britannia is a great tourist attraction to visit whilst in Edinburgh. Please see the Restaurant Lists page for other suggestions for eating gluten free in Edinburgh.
Royal Yacht Britannia is open every day except Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Please see website for details. You need to allow around two hours to tour the yacht.
Ocean Terminal, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6JJ, Scotland.
15 minutes drive from Edinburgh city centre, or tourist hop-on, hop-off buses stop at Ocean Terminal.
