Dear Reader

THE ice cream parlours of Braemar will be ordering in extra tubs following news that Balmoral, the late Queen’s favourite residence, will be open to visitors this summer.

It’s a glorious spot, with the River Dee chattering, red squirrels stocking up on beech nuts and, if you’re lucky, a golden eagle on a regal fly-past.

I was there some 15 years ago as a guest of Her Majesty — well, not exactly invited in person but certainly with her permission when she allowed the Aberdeen Artists Society to hold painting courses on the estate.

There were 12 of us and we were put up just beside the castle in the Queen’s Building, where staff members live when the monarch is in residence.

One minute I was in the ballroom examining works of art by Sir Edwin Landseer and Carl Haag, the next I was peering through the windows of Garden Cottage, where Queen Victoria sometimes took breakfast.

I talked to the gardeners about the then Queen’s passion for the mixed-coloured stocks planted along one side of the castle, and about the Duke of Edinburgh’s growing irritation at the way the Virginia creeper had been allowed to take over.

My efforts with a paint brush were rubbish, but what a treat — and now the King is making good on his promise to open royal residences to the public.

Victoria wrote how Balmoral seems to ‘breathe freedom and peace, and makes one forget the world and its sad turmoils’.

In nearby Ballater, almost every street is named after Victoria or Albert. And dotted about the countryside are monuments, statues and cairns dedicated to her memory, most of which were paid for by workers and tenants on the estate.

But it’ll be the interiors of Balmoral that will be a poignant reminder of our muchloved Queen Elizabeth

II. I do hope some of her Tupperware will be on display.