King Charles III’s old school goes on charm offensive

Pupils go to class at the Gordonstoun School, in Elgin, in the Scottish Highlands, on May 22, 2024. – Facilities at Gordonstoun School in northeast Scotland include a climbing wall, rifle range and a five-hole golf course, while students can even avail themselves of bagpipe lessons. But there is another reason why the institution is well-known: one of its former students happens to be Britain’s King Charles III. (Photo by Andy Buchanan / AFP)

Facilities at Gordonstoun School in northeast Scotland include a climbing wall, rifle range and a five-hole golf course, while pupils can even avail themselves of bagpipe lessons.

But there is another reason why the institution in the far north of Scotland is well-known: one of its former pupils happens to be King Charles III.

It is hard to get more isolated than Gordonstoun, which lies near the city of Elgin, on the North Sea coast some 66 miles (106 kilometres) northwest of Aberdeen.

Getting there involves driving along narrow country roads.

Behind its gates are peaceful grounds stretching over 220 acres (90 hectares), with majestic trees and lush grass well watered by the Scottish rain.

Some 500 children and teenagers from about 40 countries attend the school, including Amelia Lee, 17, from Hong Kong, who has Charles’s old rooms.

“It’s just kind of surreal,” she told AFP, pointing out the desk where the future king

To be honest, I don’t really use this,” she added. “I do store my snacks there.”

Lee was allocated the room after being elected class captain, just as Charles had been in his schooldays after initially sleeping in a dormitory.

Charles, then known as the Prince of Wales, spent his teenage years from 13 to 18 at Gordonstoun between 1962 and 1967.

His school attendance was a first at the time for a future British monarch, who until that point had been educated by a tutor.

“He was treated just as any other student,” said Gordonstoun principal Lisa Kerr.

Lara Croft
At the end of May, the king, now 75, agreed to become an honorary patron of the Gordonstoun Association of former pupils.

It was the latest public relations coup for the school, which has been working hard to dispel the idea that the monarch hated his