The Unassuming Royal Who Captivated a Hebridean Village
It was a gentle summer afternoon in 1993 in the village of Scadabay on Harris's east coast. Mrs MacLeod was preparing her husband's tea when she noticed a couple approaching from the shore, their elegant yacht anchored nearby. The visitors purchased some of her homespun knitting and admired her Harris tweed. The man seemed ordinary, but the woman with her stately up-do, engaging smile, and exquisitely elocuted voice was strikingly memorable.
As they prepared to leave, Mrs MacLeod requested they sign her visitors' book. She felt puzzled when she saw the entry. "Just... Anne?" she murmured. "Will you not be adding your surname?" Her guest beamed warmly and replied, "I don't use one." Only then did Mrs MacLeod realize "Anne and Tim" were actually Princess Anne and her then-husband Captain Mark Phillips.
From Youthful Spikiness to National Treasure Status
At 75, the Princess Royal has long outgrown some of the more spirited incidents of her younger years. Who could forget when she told photographers at the Badminton Horse Trials to "naff off"? Or the more dramatic moment in March 1974 when, facing a terrifying kidnap attempt and a gun-wielding madman demanding she exit her limousine, Anne famously retorted: "Not bloody likely..."
Today, she stands as a genuine national treasure—frugal, no-nonsense, an accomplished horsewoman, and indisputably the hardest-working member of the Royal Family. In 2024 alone, Princess Anne carried out an impressive 474 engagements. Nothing seems to fluster her royal composure.
Remarkable Resilience and Scottish Affections
She once refused to abandon a visit to Madagascar despite an outbreak of bubonic plague, and maintained perfect calm when a loose horse pranced out of control during Trooping the Colour. When an overly talkative local councillor tried to hurry her through a crowd of people eager to meet her, she silenced him with a sharp: "Stop wittering, man..."
Princess Anne maintains a particular regard for Scotland, having served as president of the Scottish Rugby Union for forty years. She was recently spotted in the stands at Cardiff, singing "Flower of Scotland" with evident relish. Her Scottish connections run deep: she is a Knight of the Thistle, Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, and has twice served as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
A Lifelong Fascination with Lighthouses
Her Scottish patronages include the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. She seems to cherish the Western Isles especially, rarely letting a year pass without undertaking some low-key but delightful engagement in the Outer Hebrides. In August 2024, she visited Carloway village to open its former school, now splendidly repurposed as a community center and shop.
Beyond her official duties, Princess Anne and Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Lawrence are regular private visitors to the region, sailing their yacht through the long summer days, discreetly coming ashore to buy provisions, and queuing in village Co-ops like ordinary citizens.
This connects to the Princess Royal's other great passion beyond horses: her adoration of lighthouses. She has been a dedicated pharologist since the Queen's first official visit to Lewis and Harris in 1956, which included a tour of the Tiumpan Head lighthouse. As Master of the Corporation of Trinity House in London and Patron of the Northern Lighthouse Board in Edinburgh since 1993, she is notionally responsible for every lighthouse, light buoy, and lightship across the realm.
Simple Living and Recent Challenges
In 2008, it was revealed that she planned to visit every single lighthouse in Scotland—all 208 of them. To date, she is believed to have visited approximately half. In February 2023, she wrote the foreword for Christopher Nicholson's "Rock Lighthouses of Britain and Ireland," describing lighthouses as "an enduring symbol of man's tenacity, ingenuity, and altruism in the face of the unrelenting power and destructive force of nature."
Her life reflects unpretentious simplicity. Princess Anne often drives herself to public engagements, and when entertaining visitors at Gatcombe Park or her St James's Palace apartment, Tim usually makes the tea. She dispensed with most of her staff decades ago, expecting everyone to help with hoovering and laundry duties.
Gatcombe Park operates with just six staff members in a friendly, informal atmosphere. One visitor described the living room as "a small, old-fashioned affair, laden with books, trinkets, photographs and a dated television."
Steadfast Through Personal Loss
Recent years have brought significant challenges. She lost her father in 2021 and her mother just seventeen months later. It was Anne who comforted the nearly-hysterical Prince Harry and accompanied her mother's coffin to Edinburgh the following Sunday. In 2024, she survived a serious incident with her horse that left her dazed and hospitalized.
With the King's recent health issues requiring her to assume additional responsibilities, Princess Anne continues her duties with characteristic determination. She remains shrewd, alert, and indefatigable—truly our greatest "Princess of the Blood," and arguably the best queen Britain will never have.
