Having met at a Scottish university, a trip north of the border seems fitting for the Prince and Princess of Wales to celebrate 14 years of marriage.
William and Kate – who first crossed paths at the University of St Andrews in 2001 – will travel to the Isle of Mull, off Scotland’s west coast, this time next week for a two-day stay.
There, they will ‘highlight the importance of protecting and championing the natural environment’, first visiting the town of Tobermory – where the popular BBC children’s television series Balamory was filmed.
William and Kate’s Royal Foundation will also announce a community project as the couple meet locals – everyone from countryside rangers to Hebridean sheep – while remembering their 2011 wedding in Westminster Abbey.
The Prince has a further connection with the Isle of Mull because it is part of lands once ruled by the Lord of the Isles, one of a number of Scottish titles he inherited from his father when Charles became King.
When in Scotland, William and Kate are officially known by their Scottish titles, the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay.
The couple will visit a hall that serves as a community hub in the town and also tour the Tobermory producers market at the town’s harbour, sampling produce and meeting some of Mull’s makers and creators.
This is where they will announce that their foundation will partner with two community spaces across Mull to support and develop the areas, with the project aiming to ensure residents can continue to meet and join activities.
William and Kate – who first crossed paths at the University of St Andrews in 2001 – are spending their anniversary north of the border. (Pictured: The royals’ 2011 wedding)
In 2022, pictured, the Prince and Princess of Wales celebrated their 12th anniversary in Norfolk
To celebrate 10 years the couple shared this image and thanked ‘everyone for the kind messages on our wedding anniversary’
They will also visit a croft and restaurant on the west coast, meeting the Hebridean sheep farmed on the 50-acre site and helping select garden produce for the menu.
On the final day, William and Kate will meet countryside rangers from the Mull and Iona Ranger Service at the Ardura Community Forest, join a school group as they take part in outdoor learning, and meet Ardura Acorns, an early years outdoor learning play group that includes nature trails, den-building and animal tracking.
The visit aims to highlight the importance of protecting and championing the natural environment.
The life partners of more than 20 years became friends first at university where Kate was working towards an art history degree, while William, who initially enrolled for history of art, had switched to geography, before embarking on a romance.
It is said that Kate caught the attention of the young prince at a charity fashion show in the Spring of their first year at university.
A 20-year-old Kate confidently strutted in front of her peers wearing a revealing sheer dress with a black bra and underwear for a fashion show titled ‘The Art of Seduction’. (It had actually been a see-through skirt or minidress worn as a top)
Prince William, who paid £200 for a table close to the catwalk, is said to have been open-mouthed. The lace slip itself later sold for £78,000.
They then moved in to an apartment with friends during their second year of studies ‘as friends’ but ‘it just sort of blossomed from there really,’ the Prince later said in the couple’s official engagement interview.
Kate and Prince William on their graduation day at St. Andrews University, in June 2005
In their second year, William moved in with Kate, and their friends Fergus Boyd and Olivia Bleasdale into a two-story apartment on Hope Street (the house second on the right) in the middle of town for £100 a week
Kate Middleton modelling on the catwalk at a student fashion show attended by Prince William in March 2002
William proposed to Kate in a cabin hut roughly 11,000 feet above sea level on the side of Mount Kenya in Africa
Prince William and Kate Middleton pose for photographs after announcing their engagement to the press in the State Apartments of St James’s Palace on November 16, 2010
Despite a short hiatus in 2007, William proposed in 2010 in a cabin hut roughly 11,000 feet above sea level on the side of Mount Kenya in Africa after getting back together.
Before long, they were wed in a grand fairy-tale ceremony in Westminster Abbey on April 29 2011, with the aisle of the Gothic London church lined with trees.
The bride wore a stunning Alexander McQueen gown designed by Sarah Burton and the Queen borrowed her the Cartier Scroll Tiara for the big day.
Prince Harry served as his brother’s best man, with both the Duke of Sussex and William dressing in traditional military uniforms.
The affair, attended by a crowd of 1,900 including royals, celebrities and politicians from across the globe, was hailed the wedding of the century at the time.
Following the ceremony, the newlyweds stood on the Buckingham Palace balcony to exchange not one, but two kisses and the celebratory crowds went wild.
Upon their marriage, the Queen granted the couple the titles the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, which they would later trade in for the Prince and Princess of Wales.
It is likely that this anniversary will be all the more special after William admitted 2024 was ‘the hardest year of my life’ after Kate’s cancer diagnosis, as well as his father’s.
In a video with William and their children, Kate announced she had finished her chemotherapy treatment
The Princess of Wales included deeply personal message in which she thanks those who have supported her, saying she has ‘drawn great strength’ from them
Last March, the Princess of Wales issued her deeply moving video message to the world revealing that she had been diagnosed with cancer
A year later, the royal couple attended the annual Commonwealth Day Service of Celebration at Westminster Abbey last month
They will travel to the Isle of Mull, off Scotland’s west coast, this time next week for a two-day stay
In September, the Princess revealed she finished her course of ‘preventative chemotherapy’ and shared it reminded her and her husband to ‘reflect and be grateful for the simple yet important things in life, which so many of us often take for granted. Of simply loving and being loved.’
The princess’ personal message to the nation is accompanied by a stunning three-minute long video showing her and William in Norfolk with their three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, shot last summer.
It shows the family playing happily on the beach and in the woods, William and Catherine laying entwined on a blanket, hugging their children – and kissing.
Some six months earlier, Kate released another emotional video where she revealed that she was undergoing treatment for cancer but also gave an insight to her relationship with her husband.
She said the diagnosis came as a ‘huge shock’ to both her and William, adding that they were doing ‘all they can’ to process it both as a couple but also as a ‘young family.’
‘It has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them and reassure them that I’m going to be okay,’ Kate said.
‘Having William by my side is a great source of comfort and reassurance, as is the love, support and kindness that has been shown by so many of you – it means so much to us both.’
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