Charles adds whisky to tea on a tour of businesses in Aberdeenshire

Charles, known as the Duke of Rothesay in Scotland, was given the cuppa and dram at Gibbs – Gentlemen’s Outfitter in Inverurie and decided to mix the two.

The store, which sells designer brands and formal wear for hire, including kilts, hosted the royal visitor as he toured local shops and the town’s farmers’ market on Tuesday.

Earlier, Charles met one of the stars of the BBC’s series Trawlermen during a visit to Amity Fish Company Ltd in Peterhead.

The company is headed by renowned skipper Jimmy Buchan, who starred in the Bafta award-winning series.

Mr Buchan said: “We were proud to host a walk-through of our supply chain operations, where we explained our desire to improve on our sustainability footprint and how we are working to improve the integrity of our products during transit to customers.”

Charles also learned about the challenges to the business from Covid-19 and lockdown.

Charles also visited Rora Dairy, which produces a range of Scottish yogurts on an organic family-run farm near Peterhead.

Bruce and Jane Mackie welcomed him to their farm, which has been selected to supply November’s Cop26 climate change conference in Glasgow.

Mrs Mackie said: “This year has been tremendously exciting for us all at Rora and we were delighted to welcome Prince Charles to the farm to show him the results of our work to improve biodiversity and sustainability here.

“Our organic certification and selection for Cop26 is recognition of our efforts and, like so many of our customers, we really feel that the prince, who is a farmer himself, understood and appreciated this.”

Glen Garioch in Oldmeldrum, one of the country’s oldest distilleries, is also welcoming Charles during his royal tour of the north-east.

It is being renovated and upgraded following a £6 million investment from American drinks company Beam Suntory to reinstate more traditional production processes and reduce the distillery’s carbon footprint.

The Duke of Rothesay’s tour also includes the Inverurie community allotment and meeting representatives from Grampian Opportunities, an organisation that promotes learning, volunteering and employment opportunities, and offers support for disabled people and people with mental health problems.

During a visit to Inverurie Charles was keen to speak to some locals.

He went door to door chatting to local businesses in the square, all to the tune of 12-year-old Ruaridh Craig’s bagpipes.

“It was wet and I was nervous but he asked what my name was and asked how long I’d been playing the bagpipes,” Ruaridh said afterwards, admitting his excitement.

Inverurie born and bred Shona Singer also welcomed Charles to her family-owned toy shop, Strachans.

She was delighted at the duke’s “genuine interest” in the businesses in the town.

She said: “We said we had a lot of farming toys, which we said his grandchildren would enjoy and he found that quite funny.

“It was quite a thrill, we didn’t realise he was going to come in so it was quite exciting. The staff all got to meet him, which was lovely.

“He was asking a lot of questions and he does seem genuinely interested, I think from his sustainability standpoint local businesses are a massive part of that so I think he has a genuine interest.”

Charles stopped for a final dram at the town’s Davidsons Specialist Butcher.

Margaret Robertson, from Daviot, was waiting outside and had come to Inverurie especially to see Charles. “I met him years ago and I like him, they are very good at making effort to come round the towns.”