HMQ opens FVRH

The Queen was in town today. Mrs S got this photo during the opening ceremony for the new Forth Valley Royal Hospital which is at Larbert near Stirling and Falkirk in Scotland. The old hospitals at Stirling Royal and Falkirk Royal will be no more so it is the end of a long era for these hospitals where other uses will now be found for them, and the start of a new era for FVRH. From what I saw of the photographs, this seemed like an event where the Queen and Prince Philip could meet patients, staff and families.

The Queen was then driven to Stirling Castle to open the newly, and expensively, refurbished Royal Apartments (I blipped on the public opening on 4 and 5 June). That seemed to me to be a wholly different event from the FVRH opening. I had gone to the castle but nobody was allowed onto the vast esplanade - it was cordoned off by the police so no Stirling citizens were at the castle to wave to the Queen. It must have been a pretty empty scene driving up to the castle gates and into the castle itself.

Scottish Heritage sent out an email yesterday afternoon to its members to say the castle would be closed until 3.30 for an official opening - this was the first I'd heard that the official opening was to be 6 July. It was announced in the local paper this morning and on television news too. All a bit too late if anyone was planning visit the castle today or if they wanted to go and cheer the Royal party. Seemed to me as if the whole idea for the Palace opening was much more secretive and exclusive to those lucky enough to be invited with any contact with the people of Stirling merely anecdotal and confined to a glimpse in a limo. So - no photos for me other than a limp Royal Standard flying from the ramparts of Stirling Castle. A rare photo in its own right since we can't recall the last time the Royal Standard was raised at Stirling Castle.

Ah well, back to less regal stuff tomorrow.