Kate Middleton and Prince William to return to St Andrews University where they met 20 years ago on Scotland Royal tour

KATE Middleton and Prince William will return to the university where they first met 20 years ago on an upcoming Royal tour of Scotland.

The Duke of Cambridge will first head to Scotland on Friday for the seven-day trip before his wife joins him on Tuesday.


?
Read our Royal Family live blog for the latest updates



William and Kate met at St Andrews University, where they first met

Kate and William will visit Edinburgh and Fife together as part of the tour

The trip will see William, 38, carry out duties in his role as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland – a position he was given by the Queen.

His duties within the role included making speeches at the opening and closing ceremonies of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

And after the Duchess of Cambridge joins him on Tuesday, the couple will conduct a string of engagements in Orkney, Edinburgh and Fife.

Twenty years after they met at University, William and Kate – who are known as the Duke and Duchess of Srathearn when in Scotland – will return to St Andrews University for a trip down memory lane. 

Both William and Kate had taken gap years before finding themselves in the same halls of residence and studying Art History at St Andrews University in 2001.

They began dating around two years later.

Announcing this week’s tour, a Kensington Palace spokesperson said: “The duke is honoured to be fulfilling the role of Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland this year.

“Both he and the duchess are very much looking forward to spending time in Scotland, hearing from a wide range of people on the issues they care about, and celebrating individuals who have gone above and beyond to support their communities over the past year.”



Like William, Kate studied Art History at St Andrews

The pair were friends for a couple of years before they started dating.

Upon their return to the uni, they will meet with current students and hear about how they have coped and supported one another during a difficult year.

Other highlights of the visit include the duke inviting emergency responders to watch the Scottish Cup Final with him at a rooftop bar.

Kate and William will also host NHS staff at a drive-in cinema for a special screening of Disney’s Cruella, to honour their roles as joint patrons of NHS Charities Together.

The couple will join young carers from the Fife area, for a session of land yachting at the beach, and will highlight sustainable projects ahead of Glasgow hosting the UN’s Cop26 climate summit in November. 

As part of this mission, they would partake in racing an Extreme E electric vehicle at Knockhill Racing Circuit and visit Orkney’s European Marine Energy Centre. 

They would also hear about how the Fields in Trust group protects green spaces for communities across the UK.

The committee was supported by the William’s grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, for 64 years.

He passed the role of president to William in 2013.



A young Prince William speaks to the press at Highgrove around a year before he started at St Andrews University

William was appointed Lord High Commissioner by the Queen