A watercolour showing the arrival of the royal yacht at Granton Pier, Edinburgh, with figures waving in boats in the foreground and a view of Edinburgh Castle in the background.

Victoria and Albert visited Scotland for the first time in September 1842. Their journey up the east coast of England to Edinburgh was delayed by bad weather, and they arrived there, early in the morning, a day later than intended. This meant that the plans put into place for a welcoming ceremony fell into disarray. However, Albert described the visit as a “delightful, exciting tour” and it inculcated a love for the country in the royal couple that culminated in the building of their own private residence, Balmoral, in the Highlands.

This watercolour is one of a series commissioned by Walter Francis Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, who organised the royal tour with his wife Charlotte, who was Queen Victoria's Mistress of the Robes, to present to Victoria and Albert as a souvenir of their visit. The artist, William Leighton Leitch, taught the Duchess of Buccleuch watercolour painting, and from 1846 would be Queen Victoria’s own tutor for almost twenty years. However, the watercolours of the 1842 Scottish tour, painted in 1844, were not presented to Victoria at the time; she did not receive them until 1888, when the Duke's daughter-in-law Louisa sent them to her in a leather portfolio entitled 'Sketches in Scotland by WIlliam Leitch 1842'.