Surely I can’t have been the only person, that frowned my eyebrows when reading on the official social media and in press announcements that Buckingham Palace decided to call the few days that the Queen spends in Scotland each year late June-early July Royal Week this time. It is according to the royal website how the period is known in Scotland. Others call it Holyrood Week as the Queen stays at her official residence in Scotland, the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. If you want to visit Scotland and include the palace, be aware that the palace is closed for a few days when the Queen is staying there.
The week usually includes the Queen being offered the keys to Edinburgh, an investiture of Scots, and in normal times she would also hold a garden party at Holyroodhouse. Sometimes the visit includes the Thistle Service at St Giles’ Cathedral. Like in August/September, when she stays at Balmoral Castle in the Highlands, the Queen visits various regions in Scotland and meets with as many Scots as possible. The royal website says that it is to celebrate Scottish culture, achievement and community.
Also in Scotland the fact that in Scotland the week is called “Royal Week” came as a surprise. It turned out lots of people had never heard of “Royal Week” nor of “Holyrood Week” (I know a lot of people outside Scotland and the UK who actually know what that is). The Scottish newspaper “The National” mentions that the name “Holyrood Week” at least exists since 2010. I remember visiting Scotland myself exactly in this period in 2006, and already back then the royals returned to Scotland yearly, so I am rather surprised it comes as a surprise. And the fact that people working at Buckingham Palace don’t even seem to know what it is, is quite funny.
I always seem to have known it as “Holyrood Week”. What about you?
