Edinburgh Photo Gallery - Royal Yacht Britannia

The Royal Yacht Britannia is moored just off the coast in Leith, a short light rail ride from Edinburgh's centre. Launched from Clydebank in Scotland in 1953, it was a floating Royal residence for 44 years until 1997. The government at the time noted the ship's high retrofitting and operational costs and decided to decommission it.

Britannia called at over 600 ports over its history, hosted 4 Royal honeymoons, and brought home Prince Charles and Governor Chris Patten after Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997.

Today, it is a museum and you can explore on your own with an audio tour.

All clocks on board are set at 3:01pm, the last time the Queen stepped off the ship before it was decommissioned.

The Drawing Room has an electric fireplace and furniture with floral designs. The family would relax here, such as playing card games.

The tour continues downstairs to the crew quarters, where over 240 staff live in fairly cramped conditions.

The sick bay and operating theatre are frozen in time from the 1950s. The Queen's royal surgeon would accompany her during these trips.

The large laundry room can wash up to 600 shirts a day, while the royal family's laundry would be done on separate days from the crew's. The huge size suggests that Britannia could have been used as a hospital ship.

Beneath the State Apartments and the Royal family's working quarters is a spectacularly clean engine room. The Queen was so proud of it such that she even brought guests to see it. The steam-powered ship sailed over 1 million nautical miles during its history, with 8 men on duty here to keep everything running.