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In the summer of 1963, Prince Charles walked into the lounge bar of a hotel in Stornoway and ordered a cherry brandy.
That small, quick drink prompted worldwide headlines because the prince was a schoolboy aged 14 and a major police investigation into his under-age drinking followed – as did the almost-immediate suspension of his private detective.
Inside the Prince of Wales bar with its distinctive wallpaper
Now, just over 50 years later, the Crown Hotel has closed its doors – including the subsequently-renamed Prince of Wales lounge bar with its regal-themed wallpaper.
Its current owners say they plan to refurbish the fading jewel that was the Crown Hotel in the hope a new licencee can be found to make it a success again.
The prince was a pupil at Gordonstoun School and was on the school training ship, the Pinta, when she sailed into town on June 17, 1963. Dinner at the Crown was arranged for them before a Jayne Mansfield movie at the Stornoway Playhouse. There was just time for some of the older lads to have a quick drink in the upstairs lounge bar and the prince tagged along.
Barmaid Christine Matheson had absolutely no idea who the prince was and, as is the custom, asked everyone what they would like to drink. The prince, who has since said he had tasted no alcohol except when the Queen had once given him a tot of cherry brandy before a hunt, decided to ask for just that. It cost him two shillings and six pence (12.5p).
Of course, it was illegal for him to be served any alcohol until he was 18. Unfortunately for him, a newspaper stringer was at the end of the bar and witnessed everything. She was soon on the phone to the London press.
Coverage from 1963 shows American newspapers were firmly on Charles’s side
Chartered planes carrying reporters began arriving the following morning. Crown licencee Alexander Macmillan, his brother and the barmaid were advised to go into hiding leaving his brother’s wife to serve the press and field their probing questions.
Her son Callum Ian Macmillan, a college lecturer, said: “My mum had never served a dram before. She didn’t know how. Who knows what size of measures she gave them?”
At first, Buckingham Palace furiously denied the cherry brandy incident had happened. However, after the prince’s detective Donald Green admitted he was not actually with him at that precise time, the palace was forced to retract the denial. Green was suspended and Charles was ordered back to Gordonstoun in disgrace to face the wrath of headmaster Robert Chew.
The Crown Hotel put the Profumo scandal in the shade
Those close to the prince have said the furore about his behaviour and the humiliation of Donald Green, who he had got on extremely well with, made it one of the times he felt lowest in his whole life.
Depute fiscal Colin Scott Mackenzie, junior, later announced that his father, who was the Stornoway procurator fiscal, had dropped the charges against Alexander Macmillan and barmaid Christine.
Though some have passed away, some of the main players in the scandal are still with us. Mr Mackenzie, jun, went on to become a sheriff in Orkney and Shetland and is now retired back in Stornoway. And a now-retired member of the island business community was actually with the prince and his party in the lounge bar that evening. He is still not prepared to discuss his recollections.
As in many towns, the recession has hit the Stornoway social scene and many hotels and bars are struggling. The 15-bedroom Crown, which also has a downstairs public bar, has suffered from an obvious lack of investment and was on the market after longtime licencee Effie Macleod left to run a small bar nearby over a year ago.
Ms Macleod had marked anniversaries of the prince’s visit by selling cherry brandies at the same 1963 price as the prince paid.
The couple who ran it since say they have been unable to do a deal to continue with the owners, the Punch Taverns chain.
Punch says the Crown is now not for sale. It said: “We are investing in our estate and are planning a major refurbishment at the Crown. The hotel is temporarily closed and we are currently in negotiations with interested operators with a view to reopen as soon as possible.
“Unfortunately, we cannot provide any information with regards to the visit by Prince Charles.”
It is known the prince felt utterly wretched by the entire cherry brandy incident and has not visited the Crown since. He did jokingly wonder aloud on a visit to the Isle of Lewis in the mid-1980s with Princess Diana whether they had time to call in for a “wee drink”.
However, he has made reference to the cherry brandy incident on several occasions. The mere mention of that drink makes him “wince”, he said.
Asked about the prince’s current thoughts on news of the closure of the Crown Hotel, his press secretary came back with a very firm statement. It said: “We do not wish to add any further comment to that which is already in the public domain.”
So it was all the Queen’s fault. She had plied him with cherry brandy before that. Tut tut.
Who cares what these immigrant benefits scroungers do or do not do?
We’ve come to expect this type of ‘ Bolshie’ talk from Guga every time a memberof the Buckingham Palace crowd is mentioned .
So perhaps the only thing that could allay the Niseach’s obvious detestation of UK royalty would be their granting the annual Sulasgeir harvesting expedition a Royal Charter and seal of approval. But then again,bearing the name he does, such an approval could just as likely antagonise Guga even more
But whatever the reaction, if he knows anyone willing to sell or barter a Guga, this fellow Lewisman who hasn’t tasted the exquisite Sulasgeir- reared flesh since some years ago striking a bargain with a Swainbost workmate, would be willing to turn a blind eye to his treasonable remarks about our dear royal family
IMM your “dear royal family” is more correct than you might imagine. Mrs. Betty Schleswig-Holstein Soenderburg-Glucksburg is one of the richest people in the world, but it costs the taxpayers a fortune to keep her and her ever increasing brood living the high life. Just consider how much it cost for that wedding of one of her grand-children. It came to around £80 million, including security costs. This in a country (the YUK) where last year over 30,000 people died of hypothermia.
No doubt you were brought up in an era when children were all brainwashed at school, with an English imposed education system, and taught to celebrate Empire Day, and later Commonwealth Day. However, some of us learned to think for ourselves and learned to shake of the shackles of colonialism.
We definitely do not need these immigrant benefits scroungers, and an independent Scotland should be a republic.
Guga is perfectly correct in saying that past Western Isles generations were taught a biased and unhealthy view of their own history.
Royal rivalries and the imperialist conquests of English aristocratic dukes were thought to be of much more importance and worth than events nearer home, which had considerably more impact on the lives of those being taught. Some of us were also made to feel inferior because we were able to think and communicate in two languages rather than one. Figure that one out !
In all my time in school I never heard a word spoken about the Highland Clearances or the Iolaire,though I knew the names of every last person in the royal households of Edinburgh and London.
But times have changed, and nobody today is forced to bow the knee to royalty, including Guga .
He seems to have some hang-up about the monarchy, which today has very little power in comparison to the past. They are no more than ceremonial figureheads who go round the country opening things and doing a lot of smiling and waving,while the taxpayers money spent on their upkeep is more than paid back by all the foreign tourists they attract to the UK.
It’s rather unfair of Guga or anyone else to criticise members of the royal family for being born into their regal situation. Though if anyone has a guga to spare, I’m more than willing to make an exception and stick the knife into Prince Andrew.
IMM, the feeling of inferiority to our English lords and masters will continue for as long as the people of Scotland are willing to continue to bend the knee and tug the forelock to them and their German monarchy.
As for the nonsense spoken about their contribution to the tourist industry, you should remember that France has a much, much greater and more profitable tourist industry, despite the fact that they knew how to treat their monarchy and their aristocrats.
I can understand your reluctance to give up your deference to our colonial masters due to the brainwashing in your youth, even though you appear to have learned about some of the many problems and disasters they have caused for Scotland. However, I am appalled by your homicidal tendencies towards my feathered relations. There will be no spare guga for you balach!
Guga is under the impression that only other people are brainwashed, though his own brain seems to have undergone a thorough cleansing of any facts that might contradict his fervent Scottish nationalism.
Such as the fact that many Scottish clan chiefs sold their own people down the river. Also factually correct is that some of the most oppressive past landlords in the Highlands and Islands were proud Scots, whilst many of their fellow countrymen were at the forefront of British imperialist expansion. Both Lews Castle and the original Nicolson Institute were built with British colonialist money.
Incidentally, it was in the latter seat of learning that I met plenty born-and-bred fellow islanders, some in positions of authority, who were as disdainful of their Gaelic-speaking heritage as any haughty upper-class English aristocrat.
Sorry to disappoint Guga even further by saying that I doubt whether his French Revolution-style aspirations of decapitating the entire royal family will ever become official SNP policy. Though he could try Al-Queda.
As for my own alleged homicidal tendencies towards his species; I was actually hoping that any guga offered to me would already be deceased. Though if not, the knife intended for Prince Andrew could also be used for more practical purposes.
IMM, I am well aware, and utterly ashamed of the fact that a considerable number of Scots are little other than Uncle Toms and Quislings who live on their knees and spend all their time tugging their forelocks to their colonial masters. There are too many of them who, in the words of Robert Burns (another active supporter of the French Revolution), have been, and still are, “bought and sold for English gold, sic a parcel of rogues in a nation”.
However, just because that there are so many Quislings in Scotland, is no reason for me to follow suit. I am proud to be a Scot and look forward to Scotland being a nation again, free from the English shackles, and keeping all the money and resources currently stolen from us by the English to prop up their failed state (see the McCrone Report for some of the details).
As for the German royal family, I am quite content to let them keep their heads, along with the sewer rats in the House of Lards; as long as they stay in England and we, in Scotland are not forced to pay for their upkeep. In other words, when we become an independent republic, I don’t really care what the English do with them.
Incidentally, Lews Castle was built by a drug runner from the proceeds of crime – a sorry reflection on the attitude of some Scots. Moreover, the most oppressive landlord in the Highlands was the first Duke of Sutherland, who was an Englishman.