STUDENTS from Doon Academy had a royal appointment at Dumfries House.

In a happy coincidence, their regular Future Textiles session was at the same time as the Duke of Rothesay was visiting.

Another connection with the star-studded event was that the pupils were designing and making wool cushions while the leading lights of the wool industry were speaking downstairs.

Future Textiles is a project for young people which offers workshops and an insight into the techniques and possible career options within the profession.

Tutor Ashleigh Lindsay said: “For a few of today’s pupils this is their first workshop. It is all about getting the skills that they can take back to school and getting an interest in the subject.

“Bringing them out to Dumfries House gets that excitement back into Doon Academy. At school these can be long projects but they can come here and make a product in one day.

“It makes such a difference to their confidence and gets them talking about it more. We are doing a wool-themed workshop today and have got lovely Bute wool fabric.

“We are working with a lot of wool yarns which the pupils can manipulate. It’s looking at the textures and all the colours and becoming quite personalised with it.”

Among the skills the group have learned over the course has been stitching in a zip and putting an over-locker onto a garment.

Accompanying the pupils, who were enthusiastically hard at work when the Chronicle joined them, were teachers Keva McDonald and Linda McLarty