Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith to temporarily close after £2.4m losses

Britannia travelled over one million miles in its 44 years of service

The Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith is to temporarily close until further notice after recording losses of £2.4m due to coronavirus restrictions.

The charity that operates the floating visitor attraction will close it on Tuesday night.

It said it was costing more to be open with few visitors than to close and put staff on furlough.

Britannia travelled over one million miles in its 44 years of service and 390,000 people visited it last year.

Bob Downie, chief executive of The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust, said the decision to temporarily close had been made to minimise "the ongoing losses that are being incurred".

He said: "The timing of this closure is to take advantage of the extended coronavirus job retention scheme under which we can furlough staff and reclaim 80% of their wages.

"In very simple terms, we will lose less money from being closed than we are currently losing by being open - over £2.4m to date - and taking action now will help protect our charity's long-term future."