A BAR that shot to fame in the summer of 1963 when a 14-year-old Prince Charles walked in and ordered a cherry brandy is to close.
The Crown Hotel in Stornoway has shut its doors -including the subsequently renamed Prince of Wales lounge bar with its regal-themed wallpaper - but its owners, the Punch Taverns chain, plan to refurbish it.
The Prince was a pupil at Gordonstoun School when the school training ship, the Pinta, arrived at the Isle of Lewis town on June 17, 1963. Dinner at the Crown was arranged for them before a movie at the Stornoway Playhouse. There was just time for some of the older lads to have a quick drink and the Prince tagged along.
The Prince, who has since said he had tasted no alcohol until then, 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 sixpence (12.5p).
It was illegal for him to be served until he was 18. Unfortunately for him, a reporter was at the end of the bar and the incident grew into an embarrassing row in the national press.
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