A royal paradise in the Highlands
The Queen will appoint our new PM at Balmoral, during an annual holiday that will be more poignant than ever, says
It is the picture that tells a thousand words about the monarch’s love of Balmoral. Taken in 2003 by her daughter-in-law, the Countess of Wessex, the photograph shows Her Majesty and Prince Philip at the top of the Coyles of Muick on the Deeside estate that first captured the imagination of Queen Victoria in 1848.
The royal couple appear unburdened and more relaxed than ever as they soak up the stunning, heather-strewn scenery. The image could not be a better demonstration of just how happy the Royal family have always been in the Highlands.
On Tuesday, the Queen’s summer home in Aberdeenshire will take on a greater constitutional significance as she appoints the new prime minister there instead of Buckingham Palace.
Mindful of the 96-year-old’s mobility problems – also responsible for the Queen missing her favourite highland games, the Braemar Gathering today – the palace powers-that-be have decided that the handover ceremony should take place outside of London for the first time in her 70-year reign.
Once the winner of the Tory leadership race has been announced on Monday lunchtime, either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will make the 1,000mile round trip on Tuesday to be asked to form a government. Boris Johnson will go there earlier in the day to formally tender his resignation.
While the decision is a sign that the Queen is, for once, putting health before duty, it is also a reflection of how comfortable she has always felt mixing business and pleasure at the 166-yearold royal residence in Ballater.
While she appointed all her 14 previous prime ministers at Buckingham Palace, Balmoral has long been the place where she has really got to know them during summer weekends spent on bracing walks, punctuated by picnics and barbecues.
Over the years she has hosted all the premiers who have served under her on the estate – with mixed results. Harold Wilson loved it up there and was able to curry favour with the Queen by offering to collect wood for the castle’s raging fire. Margaret Thatcher fared less well, describing the annual visits as “purgatory”. Terrified of being late for the requisite outdoor hikes, for which she would often pack inadequate footwear, she used to arrive hours early and tell her driver to park in a lay-by until the allotted time. She later sent the Queen a pair of rubber gloves as a Christmas present after being surprised to see the sovereign washing up after a barbecue (as ever, masterminded by the Duke of Edinburgh), in her bare hands.
Tony and Cherie Blair enjoyed their weekend in Balmoral so much in September 1999 that they conceived their youngest son Leo there.
“As usual up there, it had been bitterly cold, and what with one thing and another…” Mrs Blair wrote in her autobiography, Speaking for Myself.
While a cold and draughty baronial castle, surrounded by wet and windy grouse moors, might not be everyone’s idea of a holiday, the Queen wouldn’t want to be anywhere else from the months of August to October.
So what is it about this unique slice of rural Scottish life that has so enthralled royals for generations? Prince Albert purchased the 50,000-acre estate in 1852, and instructed architect William Smith to redesign and rebuild the castle in local granite as he threw himself into modernising the estate (a mantle later taken up by Philip).
Queen Victoria described it as “my dear paradise in the Highlands”, writing in her diary: “All seemed to breathe freedom and peace and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils.”
After her husband’s death in 1861, it was the only place where she truly found peace – and she spent increasing amounts of time there, assisted by her Highland servant, John Brown.
Her love of Balmoral was inherited by her grandson King George V, who once declared: “I am never so happy as when I am fishing the pools of the Dee.”
A year after the 1936 abdication, the Queen’s parents George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited and also fell in love with it, taking more interest in the estate and its people than anyone since Victoria’s time.
The Queen consequently spent most of her summer holidays there as a child with Princess Margaret. In her book, The Little Princesses, the Royal family’s former nanny Marion Crawford wrote: “They looked forward to it all year. It was the main point of reference in their calendar. Events were likely to be dated according to ‘before we went to Scotland’ or ‘when we came back from Scotland’ [in their letters].” The kilt-clad princesses would throw themselves into country pursuits, fly fishing for salmon on the River Dee and deer stalking through the undulating hills.
In 1946, it was at Balmoral where Philip, then a dashing young Royal Navy officer, proposed to Elizabeth, then aged 20. The couple spent the summer months leading up to their 1947 wedding there. A friend wrote at the time: “There was luxury, sunshine, and gaiety… picnics on the moors every day; pleasant siestas in a garden ablaze with roses, stocks and antirrhinums; songs and games.”
After their wedding on November 20, the newlyweds spent part of their honeymoon at Birkhall, a country home on the estate (now occupied by Prince Charles and Camilla). The newly married Elizabeth wrote to her mother about being snowed in with Philip and the corgis: “It’s heaven up here. Philip is reading full length on the sofa (he had a cold), Susan [a corgi] is stretched out before the fire, Rummy is fast asleep in his box by the fire, and I am busy writing this in one of the armchairs near the fire (you see how important the fire is!).” Philip would later teach their own children to hunt and fish there. Describing Balmoral as “the most beautiful place on earth”, the Queen’s granddaughter Princess Eugenie tried to explain the appeal in 2016: “Walks, picnics, dogs – a lot of dogs, there’s always dogs, and people coming in and out all the time. It’s a
‘You just hibernate. To be able to sleep in the same bed for six weeks, it is a nice change’
lovely base. I think Granny is the most happy there. I think she really, really loves the Highlands.”
According to Sally Bedell Smith’s 2012 book, Elizabeth the Queen, another part of the appeal is how close the Queen has become to Balmoral employees.
“While driving a Scottish cleric on a tour of the estate, she suddenly shouted ‘Hooray!’ as they passed one of her gamekeepers walking on the hills with a young woman,” she wrote. “The Queen explained that his wife had left him, and she was delighted that he was out with a new girlfriend.”
As Queen Victoria experienced, the estate has healing properties that have been harnessed in more recent years.
The Queen was at Balmoral with Charles and her grandsons William and Harry when they learned of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, on August 31 1997. She believed it was best for the young princes to stay in what Victoria once described as the “quiet haven in the Highlands” instead of immediately returning to London. Although that decision was frowned upon at the time, it was designed with the best of intentions. She also chose to spend the summer there after Philip died in April 2021.
As the Queen reportedly once described the house where she feels most at home: “You just hibernate. It is rather nice to hibernate when one leads such a movable life. To be able to sleep in the same bed for six weeks, it is a nice change.”