Charles and the topless yoga guru
Kilted yogi’s session as guest of the monarch
HE has become a social media sensation by striking yoga poses barechested in a kilt amid the glorious backdrop of the Scottish Highlands.
Now yoga teacher Finlay Wilson – dubbed the ‘Kilted Yogi’ – is set to lead classes by royal appointment.
The 36-year- old, who is an ambassador for the Prince’s Foundation educational charity, will host the first ‘luxury wellness retreat’ at yoga fan King
Charles’s Dumfries House in East Ayrshire next weekend.
The £500-a-head event will see Mr Wilson and husband Alan Lambie run sessions in yoga, meditation and myofascial release – a type of self-massage using tennis balls.
Also on offer at the event are a sound bath session, a cookery class and walks around the estate. Charles purchased Dumfries House and its estate for £45million with the help of a charitable consortium in 2007.
He turned it into a base for a range of education and training opportunities, particularly in traditional arts and crafts, which is open to the public.
The King believes yoga should be part of a holistic approach to healthcare while his wife Camilla is understood to have tried it too. They have not yet practised with the Kilted Yogi, but Mr Wilson, from Dundee, says he shares Charles’s approach to wellness, the arts and Scotland.
He took up yoga 17 years ago after major surgery to his legs because of a rare medical condition. He said: ‘It was a long road.
It wasn’t all smiles and rainbows. When I first started yoga I really hated it. But clearly I love it now.’ His website and Instagram feed are crammed with photos of him contorting his body in beauty spots. The snaps have been viewed more than 100million times worldwide.
He said: ‘Kilted yoga merges my passion for yoga and Scotland’s heritage.’ And intriguingly, he performed a revealing handstand at one point suggesting he is a devotee of the Scots tradition of kilt wearers spurning undergarments.