| His older brother Prince Charles is the official patron of the £3.2 million appeal to buy and redevelop the castle, with the aim to improve facilities for visitors who come to view the artefacts and memorabilia associated with the famous regiment.
Before touring the castle, Prince Edward watched a drill display mounted by cadets from The Black Watch Battalion Army Cadet Force. The cadets were drawn from the Blairgowrie, Crieff, St Andrews, Dunfermline and Glenrothes detachments, who are attending the spring camp at Barry Buddon.
On arrival to Balhousie Castle, Prince Edward was welcomed by a party of people involved in The Black Watch, including Provost John Letford and Colonel Martin Passmore, commandant of the army cadet force.
He was given a brief tour around the museum, which saw him being shown the Chief’s Room dedicated to his grandmother, the late Queen Mother.
He was then taken out to the grounds and visited the various stands that were being attended by pupils from Coupar Angus, Rattray and Alyth primary schools.
Cadet Cameron McCaig (13) was helping to lead the team of children learning to cook outside, and had been pulled off a 24-hour team exercise especially for the visit. He said, “It was good to speak to Prince Edward, and he was really interested in the project and was really driving it.
“I talked to him about the outreach project and how it works.”
The Earl of Wessex then moved on to find out more about historic weapons and uniform, and his visit ended when he was presented with his own outreach project T-shirt by Cadet Nathan Dunn.
The primary school children then lined the castle drive to wave him goodbye as he headed to other locations around Perth, which included a visit to the Gateway Centre in North Methven Street.
Prince Edward’s visit comes just days after members of The Black Watch 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, headed for Afghanistan for a tour of duty. |
