Queen plans more time at Balmoral after her lodge is fitted with wheelchair lift

THE QUEEN has had a wheelchair lift installed at her Balmoral home, fuelling speculation that she may spend more time at her beloved Highlands hideaway.

She has also applied to put in extra security, including CCTV and automatic gates, at the 50,000-acre estate on Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire.

Balmoral was bought for Queen Victoria by her husband Prince Albert in 1852 and has remained a favourite summer retreat for the Royal Family ever since. But the Queen, 95, often prefers to live in Craig Gowan House, a two-storey, seven-bedroom stone lodge on the estate.

The £20,000 high-tech lift, which can carry a wheelchair and three people, was approved for the lodge last year.

Planning documents show that officials gave the green light for ‘a Lifton lift within the rear wing of the property in order to solve the problem for disabled users in terms of gaining access up the existing staircase from ground floor to first floor, and vice versa.’

Plans were also lodged earlier this month for CCTV cameras as well as a fence, intercom and automated gate.

The Queen’s mobility has worsened in recent months and she was photographed with a walking stick earlier this year. She missed the 50th Commonwealth Day service last week at Westminster Abbey but hopes to attend a memorial service for her late husband Prince Philip later this month and as many 70th Jubilee celebrations this summer as possible.

A decision by the Queen to spend more time at Balmoral would spark comparisons with Queen Victoria, who retreated to an isolated house on the estate after Albert died, aged 42, in 1861.

Victoria could not bear to stay at the lodge that they had used together and had a smaller, grey granite property built on the edge of Loch Muick. It became known as the widow’s house.

The surrounding hills had reminded Albert of his native Germany, while Victoria said the location ‘seemed to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils’.

Asked about the possibility of the Queen spending more time on the Balmoral estate, local councillor Geva Blackett said: ‘We always welcome the Queen here, she is part of the community. We would love her to be here more if that’s what she wants to do.’

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.