SECRETS OF THE QUEEN’S GREAT ESCAPE
HER MAJESTY USUALLY SPENDS SUMMERS AT BALMORAL IN SCOTLAND. OK! REVEALS WHY THE VAST HIGHLANDS ESTATE HAS SUCH A MAGICAL PULL ON THE ROYALS
Every summer for the past 68 years, Her Majesty the Queen has decamped to her beloved Balmoral in the Scottish Highlands for 12 weeks. Her annual visit had been up in the air due to the coronavirus crisis, but tentative plans have been made to negotiate a temporary move with the Duke of Edinburgh from Windsor Castle where they’ve been self-isolating.
“I think the Queen’s been desperate to go,” says royal expert Ingrid Seward. “She says it’s the only place that she can really relax, enjoy her freedom and be herself away from prying eyes. She can clear her mind and have a think without being bothered by the niceties of court life.”
There’s still work to be done though. “The Summer Court moves to Balmoral and the boxes of paperwork continue to be sent to the Queen,” explains Ingrid. “But she can sit at her desk, looking out at the mountains and watch the everchanging weather while she works.”
After being woken each morning at 9am by bagpipes, the Queen loves to go horse riding or out walking the dogs across the moors. Hiking, fishing and hunting are enjoyed, too, with Prince George reportedly taken to watch his first grouse shoot at the age of five.
“It’s like they’ve almost gone back a century,” says Ingrid. “The royals won’t think of it as formal, but it really would be formal to us. They still have black tie dinners at Balmoral and afterwards a piper walks around the dining table playing to them.”
Things are a little more relaxed when the family gather for their famous barbecues, with Prince Philip in charge of the grill. “There are endless picnics, too, day and night,” adds Ingrid. “When the staff have their night off, the royals trundle off in the Range Rover for a candlelit picnic dinner in one of the wooden huts, which were built for Queen Victoria. They transport the picnic in a special picnic carrier designed by Prince Philip. It contains individual boxes for knives, forks and so on – everything’s in its rightful place.”
With the royal family so hands-on at Balmoral, it’s a wonder they need their 50 full-time staff. “There’s really nothing for staff to do there except have affairs with each other, which is how it got its name Immoral Balmoral!” jokes Ingrid. She adds, “The Queen even loves to do the washing up with her rubber gloves on!”
Former prime minister Tony Blair witnessed this sight when he was a guest. Writing in his memoir, he divulged, “You think I’m joking, but I’m not. They put the gloves on and stick their hands in the sink. The Queen asks if you’ve finished, she stacks the plates up and goes off to the sink.”
Describing his visits to Balmoral as “a vivid combination of the intriguing, the surreal, and the utterly freaky”, he confessed he was served drinks with the strength of “true rocket fuel” during his stay.
Ingrid notes, “An invitation to Balmoral is very, very special. It’s the place where the Queen would tell her children to bring their boyfriends and girlfriends. If they passed the Balmoral Test then they had a chance! When they were younger, Prince
Edward would organise a disco at the castle but the royals still play party games, like charades, when they all get together there.”
Photos of the library show a very practical electric convection heater used for cold evenings along with a Samsung TV and Sky box, presumably so Her Majesty can keep up to date with the horse racing. Many of the rooms are carpeted in tartan, but the drawing room features the more subtle tones of green that the Queen loves. The family’s penchant for recycling is evident in the crown motif cushions, whose fabric used to adorn the sofas in the library.
The castle dates back over 160 years so perhaps it’s no surprise that pipistrelle bats often roost in the rafters of the ballroom, where the Queen holds the Ghillies Ball. She reportedly enjoys watching her staff run around catching the bats in butterfly nets before releasing them outside to join the red squirrels that you can watch on a special Balmoral Squirrel Cam.
In addition to the baronial castle itself, there are many other properties on the 50,000 acre estate, including the sprawling seven-bedroom Craigowan Lodge. That’s where the Queen and Philip head for a ‘minibreak’ before moving up to the 52-bedroom ‘big house’ once it’s closed to the visiting public.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge prefer to stay at a threebedroom cottage called Tam-na-ghar, a favourite bolt hole for the pair during their courtship.
These days, the Queen and Philip fly to Scotland, but before the royal yacht Britannia was de-commissioned in 1997, the family travelled by sea. “They’d sail from Cowes and dock at Scrabster harbour for their visit to the Queen Mother’s home at The Castle of Mey,” says Ingrid. “Then they’d cruise around the beautiful Western Isles, stopping off at private beaches.”
Over the years, Balmoral has been privy to a number of key moments. “There have been many happy times but some very sad times, too,” says Ingrid. “It seems everything happens when the royals are at Balmoral, including the death of the Queen’s uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent in a 1942 air crash.”
Princes William and Harry, then 15 and 12, were on the estate when their mother Diana tragically died in Paris in 1997. The Queen asked for the papers to be kept away from her grandsons and it was their father who broke the news to them.“i remember just feeling completely numb, disorientated, dizzy,” William later said.
Following the divorce of the Duke and Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson was at Balmoral when the press published pictures of her having her toes sucked by her financial advisor John Bryan. The duchess later wrote how she’d had to face her mother-inlaw in her bedroom, where she was having breakfast, recalling, “The Queen was furious.”
In 2012, the family were again at Balmoral when naked photos of Prince Harry in a Las Vegas hotel room were splashed across the papers, while last year Prince Andrew was visiting when news of his former friend Jeffrey Epstein’s death broke.
But ultimately, Balmoral is the royals’ haven. As Princess Eugenie said in the documentary Our Queen At 90, “It’s the most beautiful place on earth. I think Granny is the most happy there… Walks, picnics, dogs – a lot of dogs, there’s always dogs – and people coming in and out all the time. It’s a lovely base for Granny and Grandpa, for us to come and see them up there, where you just have room to breathe and run.”
The perfect retirement spot? “At the moment it’s very much the Queen’s holiday home,” says Ingrid. “But I definitely think she’d love to retire there – if she has the chance.”