Prince Philip's royal visits to Cornwall: Tregothnan and Tremough

Following the news that the duke died earlier today, aged 99, the Packet looks back on some of those royal trips to the Duchy that his eldest son, Prince Charles, is duke of.

One of the most recent occasions was in August 2014, when Prince Philip visited the Tregothnan Estate to look at how its tea is produced and packaged on site.

He planted a tea bush and was introduced to the estate's bee colonies, before going on to plant an oak tree.

It all started three years earlier when he attended Chelsea Flower Show and the Tregothnan stand, telling team team: "Ah, I've heard about this growing in Cornwall."

Jonathan Jones, managing director of trading at Tregothnan, invited him to visit the home of Honourable Evelyn Boscawen, where the family has lived since 1334.

Mr Boscawen went on to formally write to the duke and invite him to plant a tea bush and enjoy some special tea.

It was wet Cornish day when this eventually happened, but under the shelter of an umbrella Prince Philip was given a tour of the grounds before being offered a sample of the tea grown there.

Prince Philip visiting Tregothnan in 2014 Picture: Tregothnan

The duke's response when given a cup? "It tastes just like tea," he laughed.

He was, however, said to have had a lot of detailed questions for the Tregothnan team and Mr Jones – his uncle, Louis Mountbatten, of course having been having of course been the last Viceroy of India and the first governor-general of independent India, where tea varieties such as Darjeeling and Assam are grown.

Prince Philip was declared to have "a great sense of humour" and was by all accounts fascinated by the fact that Treogthnan is the UK's largest manufacturer of charcoal, being a keen barbecuer himself.

The duke plants a tea bush on the Tregothnan Estate Picture: Tregothnan

He also planted an oak given to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

"It was really historic day to celebrate the long reign of Her Majesty," said Mr Jones.

Eight years earlier, back in June 2006, Prince Philip accompanied the Queen on another trip to Cornwall, to the Tremough Campus, to see where the new university had been developed two years earlier under the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC) initiative.

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This time it was one of the hottest days of the year, and the royal couple enjoyed a lunch provided by the Royal Duchy Hotel, consisting of chilled vichyssoise soup, caviar and sour cream, followed by corn fed chicken breast with celeriac remoulade sauce and red chicory with a Caesar dressing and Parmesan crackling.

Nursery staff, young mums and their children are thrilled to receive some quality time from the duke

The meal was finished off with summer pudding, clotted cream with raspberry tuille pastry, before coffee and Roskilly's Farm organic fudge.

After lunch they visited the design centre and the learning resource centre where they met with students of UCF, the University of Exeter and Camborne School of Mines, and greeted the spectators that had assembled on the campus piazza.

Prince Philip was noted to have admired then Penryn mayor Gill Grant's mayoral chain.

Prince Philip chats to some of the staff at the Tremough Campus in 2006