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The Royal Yacht Britannia, Ocean Drive, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6JJ

Tel: 0131 555 5566 Email us: [email protected]

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Tripadvisor’s No.1 UK Attraction 2023 - 2024

Step aboard the royal yacht britannia.

Please pre-book your tickets to guarantee admission. Start your tour at our entrance on the Ground Floor of Ocean Terminal.

A great day out for all the family, explore each of the five decks at this top attraction in Edinburgh and discover what life was like on board Queen Elizabeth II's former floating palace. 

9:30am - 4pm

(Last Admission 6pm)

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Pre-book your tickets to visit The Royal Yacht Britannia, top attraction in Leith.

Homemade soups, sandwiches and cakes, along with speciality teas and coffees.

Find souvenirs and gifts from Britannia's online Gift Shop.

Apply for 12 months' free admission after your first visit.

Stay at our luxury floating hotel, Fingal, Tripadvisor's No1. UK Luxury Hotel, AA Hotel of the Year Scotland.

Visiting Britannia

TRIPADVISOR'S NO.1 UK ATTRACTION 2023 - 2024

Click on the Visit page  for more information before you visit.

Step aboard to enjoy a great day out!

Fingal Hotel

Get away from the everyday aboard Britannia’s sister ship, Fingal.  Extend your visit with a stay in one of Fingal’s luxurious cabins, your own oasis by the sea. 

TRIPADVISOR'S NO.1 UK LUXURY HOTEL TRIPADVISOR'S NO.1 UK SMALL & BOUTIQUE HOTEL AA Hotel of the Year Scotland, AA five-star hotel and 2 AA Rosettes

Learn more: fingal.co.uk

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Stay Aboard Fingal, a Floating Hotel, on Your Next Trip to Edinburgh

Those who follow The Crown may have found themselves captivated by sweeping shots of the plush Royal Yacht Britannia . It served as the enviable setting for much of the start of the Netflix series’ second season, carrying the oft-pouty Prince Philip on several legs of a globe-spanning tour that included stops in Africa , Australia , and Antarctica .

Few, however, may know that the real-life ship is now a museum in Scotland , anchored just outside of Edinburgh. After sailing the Windsors around the world for more than 40 years, the vessel was decommissioned in the late 1990s and moved to the town of Leith, where it’s become one of the country’s top attractions. More than 400,000 people visited it last year alone.

Now, the nonprofit that looks after Britannia is expanding its purview by getting into the hotel game. Today it opens a 23-room hotel in Leith’s historic port, just steps away from the Royal Yacht. This won’t be any sort of conventional new-build, ground-up property, though—in fact, the ground will have little to do with it. Rather, the floating hotel will occupy Fingal , a 237-foot ship that first launched in 1963, a decade later than Britannia .

Originally built to help maintain Scotland’s lighthouses, Fingal was retired 17 years ago. Most ships of its age would have been sent to the scrapyard, says Andrew Thomson, who looks after hospitality and events for Britannia . Fingal , in contrast, ended up in private hands and docked in a river in Cornwall. “We couldn’t believe our luck,” says Thomson. “She was in incredible condition.”

The ballroom of the Fingal .

Several years and nearly £5 million ($6.4m) later, the newly restored and entirely refit Fingal hotel makes it debut, with rooms starting at £300 ($383) a night (including a full Scottish breakfast). Each of its luxe cabins—all with porthole windows, eight with private balconies, and one a Presidential Suite featuring a deck big enough to host a cocktail party for 80—will have its own look. “No cabin is the same because on the ship nothing is square, so every angle is completely different,” says Thomson. “All the joinery and woodwork are bespoke.”

And the details are decadent: Art Deco and neoclassical design, teak floors and polished wood paneling, granite and marble surfaces, brass fixtures, and custom leather headboards embossed with nautical maps showing the location of the Scottish lighthouse from which each cabin takes its name—every one of them a former stop on Fingal’s route.

A Fingal cabin, now re-imaged as a luxe hotel room.

Beyond the rooms, a curving staircase will envelop a glass-enclosed elevator in the ship’s multi-story central space, both elements meant to recall lighthouse architecture. There will also be a ballroom in the old hold, and a hallway through the former engine room that lets you observe the original mechanics. On the top deck, a cocktail spot inspired by the bar at London’s Langham Hotel and a restaurant celebrating what Thomson calls “the Scottish larder”—the best of local ingredients—will tempt hotel guests and visitors alike.

“This is something we’d been thinking about for a number of years,” says Thomson. “The only thing missing [from Britannia’s offering] was a hotel. We knew whatever we did had to be different—so instead of a building, we went after a ship.”

Reservations are available effective January 7, 2019 by calling +44 (0)131 3575000. This article was originally published in March 2018; it has been updated.

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Inside Edinburgh’s only luxury floating hotel, Fingal – sibling to the Royal Yacht Britannia

A stone’s throw from Her Majesty’s Royal Yacht Britannia, the now retired floating palace Where Princess Margaret celebrated her honeymoon is Fingal – a dazzling new floating hotel. Following a £5 million development, this former Northern Lighthouse Board ship – and sibling to Britannia – has undergone an epic spruce. Set in the historic port of Leith, its navy base glistens against Edinburgh’s bright blue sky, its red carpet rolled out for guests.

One memorable guest being the Princess Royal, who, as patron to the Northern Lighthouse Board since 2003 has travelled aboard Fingal on multiple occasions. As a guest on the commissioners’ trip (her sleeping quarters now form part of the Skerryvore Suite, Fingal’s penthouse) and, in July 2018, the princess returned for a private preview of Fingal ahead of its grand launch as a floating boutique hotel.

And it’s quite a place – monumental in size – with a swooping sunken ballroom decked out in wood with an epic skylight. The place has a glamorous Art Deco feel to it – everything pristine, glossy, shimmery. Golden circles are a repetitive design feature, echoing the circles of light thrown by the light houses the ship once served. There’s a wonderful honesty to its history, the engine rooms, a maze of multicoloured pipes in multifarious sizes, are celebrated – a glass walkway has been constructed above them so one is able to peer down and marvel at the ship’s inner workings and its clunky mechanics. But, for a taste of pure Willy Wonka, it’s the great glass lift that takes centre-stage in the reception, designed to resemble the top of a lighthouse. Then there’s a wall of monochrome photographs – celebrating Fingal in its heyday and the spherical elegantly cork-walled loos that follow the curve of the ship.

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All of the 22 cabins are meticulous, each named after a Stevenson lighthouse, and themed as such. The particular location of that lighthouse, ingeniously stitched onto the headboard with sea map graphics – and created by the team behind the plump, plush leather at Rolls-Royce. Soft sea greens, heather and rich burgundy are the order of the day – as well as soft tartans.

The Lighthouse restaurant, formed around a granite bar and with its restored teak deck, is the place to revel in luxury – undoubtedly a serious sun trap when the Scottish sunshine reveals itself. Wonderfully comfortable, the afternoon tea is a tour de force of sweet and savoury showstoppers, think of the most perfectly formed miniature rare-breed pork rillette followed strawberry meringues and blueberry profiteroles – all, of course, best enjoyed with champagne. Try to combine the smoked salmon somewhere, after all, it's smoked on board.

Since the Royal Yacht Britannia has retired and the Titanic now exists at the bottom of the ocean, it is to Fingal we look – the spirit of the sea and ultimate all-singing, all-dancing, luxury floating hotel.

For more information visit fingal.co.uk

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Alexandra Dock, Leith, Edinburgh,  EH6 7DX - Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)131 357 5000

The story of Fingal

The beginning

Fingal was commissioned by the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) in 1963 and was the last ship to be built by the Blythswood Shipbuilding Company in Glasgow. Registered in Leith, she was stationed for 30 years in Oban and then for 6 years in Stromness, ferrying lighthouse keepers, essential supplies and maintenance staff to lighthouses, as well as undertaking repairs to navigational aids throughout the West Coast and the North of Scotland. Fingal retired from   NLB service in 2000.   The name Fingal is believed to pay homage to the King of the Morven (Argyll) in ancient Caledonia during the 3rd century.

The maiden voyage

“The ship proved herself to be most comfortable and a very good sea boat, indeed, it is true to say that all concerned are most satisfied with her and look forward to her performing many years of useful work in the service.”

NLB Secretary W Alastair Robertson to J A Campbell Brown, Director at Blythswood Shipbuilding Company.

Her early days

Fingal’s duties included bringing equipment of the utmost importance to some of Scotland’s most far-off lighthouses. She was one of three vessels responsible for the Scottish coast and when lighthouse keepers saw Fingal on the horizon, it meant their three week posting was over and that replacement lighthouse keepers and vital supplies were on the way.

Discover what life was like aboard Fingal as a working ship.

Photography by Alan Provan

After retiring from NLB service, Fingal was sold to a private owner and renamed ‘Windsor Castle’. The proud new owner fully maintained the ship in working order for 14 years on the River Fal in Cornwall.

It was in December 2008 that Fingal's owner first approached The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust (the Trust) to enquire if it was interested in acquiring Windsor Castle. There then followed six years of negotiations before the ship was eventually acquired by the Trust in July 2014.   After a dry dock survey in Falmouth, the ship was towed to Leith in August 2014 and the detailed designs began.

Two years later her original name: Fingal was restored as a tribute to the outstanding role she had performed for the NLB, and the great affection with which she was held throughout the coastal communities she served.

A new life in Leith

The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust were keen to develop an additional income stream that was not dependant on visitors to the former Royal Yacht. As overnight accommodation is not permitted on Britannia, a luxury floating hotel concept that serviced both the leisure market and helped attract more evening events to the former Royal Yacht, was developed by the Trust’s trading company: Royal Yacht Enterprises.

A Dazzling interlude

Whilst the designs for Fingal’s conversion were being prepared in 2016, the WW1 commemorative charity, 14-18 Now, asked if they could ‘dazzle paint’ Fingal as a tribute to Royal Navy and Merchant Navy ships that had been painted to confuse enemy submariners during the First World War. As Leith Docks was home to many of these dazzle painted WW1 ships, the Trust agreed to this request, and the Turner Prize Finalist, Ciara Phillips, was commissioned to design and dazzle paint Fingal.

The Royal Yacht Britannia team “on board”

“Having excelled in the visitor attraction market for nearly 20 years, we are very much looking forward to the challenges of operating in the luxury hotel market and the benefits it will generate for BRITANNIA over the years to come.” Bob Downie, Britannia’s Chief Executive .

A brand-new Fingal

The £5m conversion took more than two years to complete, and involved totally hollowing out the ship to create 14-bedroom cabins on the main deck, including four duplex rooms. The funnel was removed to allow two new decks to be built behind where it used to be, the lower of which would feature eight larger bedroom cabins and a Presidential Suite, while the upper would be for The Lighthouse Bar and a small private dining room, The Bridge.

The top half of the funnel was then placed on top of The Lighthouse Restaurant & Bar deck to give the appearance that it was part of the original construction.

The conversion also included a spectacular round glass lift for the guests, and a separate back of house lift and stairwell for staff which connected the main galley to the four decks above, meaning they could access all areas from ‘behind the scenes’.

Fingal, the luxury floating hotel, opened to the public in January 2019. Her new life had truly begun.

Legacy of Scottish lighthouses

The Stevenson family was responsible for designing all of Scotland’s lighthouses, so to credit their work, and the NLB, each of the 22 cabins aboard Fingal are named after their lighthouses. The photographs of lighthouses that you see today on Fingal were all taken by a pharologist: Ian Cowe whose passion was to photograph every one of the Stevenson lighthouses in Scotland and the Isle of Man that were operated by the Northern Lighthouse Board. You can see more of Ian’s work in his book: Scottish and Manx Lighthouses: A Photographic Journey in the Footsteps of the Stevensons.

The Skerryvore Lighthouse is renowned as one of the most beautiful lighthouses in the world, so it was only fitting that our most lavish cabin on board be named after it. The Skerryvore Suite provides an unparalleled experience of indulgence, taking luxury to a whole new level.

Robert Stevenson's talented family also included the famous Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson (Robert's grandson). Probably inspired by visits with his grandfather to remote lighthouses, RL Stevenson wrote of many dramatic sea tales in his books Treasure Island and Kidnapped.

“There is scarce a deep sea light from the Isle of Man to North Berwick, but one of my blood designed it.  The Bell Rock stands monument for my grandfather;  the Skerry Vhor for my uncle Alan;  and when the lights come out along the shores of Scotland,  I am proud to think that they burn more brightly for the genius of my father.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

An award-winning Hotel

Fingal is now a five-star luxury floating hotel, winning Tripadvisor's No.1 UK Luxury Hotel & Tripadvisor's No.1 UK Small & Boutique Hotel. AA Hotel of the Year Scotland, Hotel of the Year (PoB Hotels) with the onboard restaurant, The Lighthouse Restaurant & Bar, awarded 2 AA Rosettes for culinary excellence. Fingal has also achieved the Keep Scotland Beautiful Gold Level National Award for Environmental Excellence. 

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