ESCAPING THE MADNESS
When things get too much, Camilla has her beloved Ray Mill House in Wiltshire to escape to. She took a brief break there following her busy and emotional first week as queen consort.
Camilla bought the Grade II property for £850 000 (then R6,8 million) in 1996, a year after she split from her first husband, and it’s the place she feels most at home.
It served as the backdrop for her 75th birthday portraits earlier this year and it’s “where she can kick off her shoes and enjoy a gin and tonic,” insiders say.
The estate has six bedrooms, a swimming pool and sprawling gardens that include a duck pond, beehives and wild peacocks. She lived at the property, which is close to the royal residence of Highgrove, from 1996 to 2003 and has since kept it as a country base, indulging in her favourite pastimes of reading, gardening, walking and entertaining friends and family.
“It’s my refuge,” she told Country Life magazine in July. “It’s the one place where I can be completely relaxed on my terms.”
IT’S ‘WHERE SHE CAN KICK OFF HER SHOES AND ENJOY A GIN AND TONIC’