Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have arrived at Edinburgh Castle for a one-day visit to the Scottish capital.
Meghan Markle greets wellwishers while on a walkabout on the esplanade at Edinburgh Castle, as she and Prince Harry visited Scotland.
Royal fans braved wet and cold conditions to greet the prince and his bride to be at the start of their tour of the city.
In the shadow of the city’s world famous castle, crowds gathered on the esplanade on Tuesday to meet the prince and his fiancee as they greeted well-wishers.
Later, they will travel to a sandwich shop that supports the homeless and has been visited by number of famous faces including Hollywood star George Clooney.
The trip to Scotland is the fourth public appearance Ms Markle and Harry have made together and follows successful visits to Nottingham, Brixton in south London and Cardiff in the months that followed their engagement announcement in November.
Kensington Palace had said: Throughout the day Prince Harry and Ms Markle will have the opportunity to meet members of the public, learn more about organisations that work in the local community and nationwide, and celebrate youth in the Scottish Year of Young People 2018.
The couple were then set move on to the New Town to visit Social Bite, a social enterprise cafe which distributes 100,000 items of food and hot drinks to homeless people across Scotland each year, as well as employing staff who have experienced homelessness themselves.
In the cafe, Prince Harry and Ms Markle will learn more about the social enterprise, meet staff and tour the kitchen.
Despite cold and wet weather, Royal fans braved the conditions to stake the best place to spot the couple on the castle’s esplanade.
Friends Maggie Binnie, 29 and Alice McCourt, 23, both Scottish students, had staked a place on the esplanade against the crash barriers and waved Union flags featuring a picture of the prince and his fiancee.
The Royal couple will be the latest in a string of high-profile visitors to Social Bite premises.
Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio stopped for lunch at Social Bite venture Home in Edinburgh’s west end in November 2016, while the Duchess of Cornwall and George Clooney have been to Social Bite’s Rose Street branch.
As they say their vows in front of the watching world, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will have a lifetime of Royal tours ahead of them as a married couple. They will waste no time getting started, it seems.
Prince Harry and Ms Markle, who are planning their May 19 wedding themselves, released a series of updates about their day, and how they hope to share their celebrations with the public.
Decisions include a carriage ride through Windsor, taking place straight after the St George’s Chapel ceremony and before their reception.
The journey is designed to allow members of the public to see the couple in the flesh, while they are still dressed in their finery, in what is likely to be one of the most photographed occasions of the year.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd. and Rt Hon. Justin Welby, will, as expected, officiate as the couple make their marriage vows.
At 1pm, immediately after the service, Prince Harry and Ms Markle, who will receive new titles reflecting their married status on the day, will leave Windsor Castle by carriage, via Castle Hill, along the High Street and through Windsor Town before returning along the Long Walk for their reception.
They hope this short journey will provide an opportunity for more people to come together around Windsor and to enjoy the atmosphere of this special day, a spokesman said.
The second, for close friends and family, will be thrown in the evening by Prince Harry’s father, the Prince of Wales.
The timings should go some way to allaying the fears of those concerned about a clash with the FA Cup final, with the football match likely to kick off at 5.30pm.
A spokesman for Kensington Palace said: Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle are hugely grateful for the many good wishes they have received since announcing their engagement.
They are very much looking forward to the day and to being able to share their celebrations with the public.
While the final arrangements for the wedding are expected to reflect the personalities of the Prince and Ms Markle with some unique elements, the basic outline of celebrations, as announced by the palace, follows tradition.
While their reception ended with an energetic Prince Harry rounding younger guests onto a minibus to continue the party into the early hours, the calming influence of Ms Markle may see a more sophisticated conclusion to the Prince’s own day.
Ms Markle told how she could not wait to say “yes” to the prince when Harry got down on one knee a few weeks ago as they cooked a roast chicken dinner at his home, Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace.
Indicating the depths of his feeling for his bride-to-be, Prince Harry said: The fact that I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly was sort of confirmation to me that everything, all the stars were aligned, everything was just perfect.
A few months into the relationship, Harry said he had to have some pretty frank conversations with Meghan about how her life may change when she entered the royal family.
He added: But I know that at the end of the day she chooses me, and I choose her, and therefore whatever we have to tackle together or individually we’ll always be us together as a team, so I think she’s capable… she’s capable of anything.