Her haven for 93 years, The Queen’s ‘magical’ Balmoral
AFTER visiting the windswept Balmoral estate for the first time in 1848, Queen Victoria wrote in her diary that ‘all seemed to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils’. It is a sentiment well understood by her descendants, particularly her great-granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth, 94, who begins her annual summer holiday this week at the Royal Deeside retreat after a tumultuous seven months.
One of her favourite times of the year, she enjoys the solace and seclusion of the Highlands, which allows her to indulge in favourite pastimes, such as horse riding, driving herself unaccompanied in a Land Rover over the rugged terrain, and walking her dorgis – a cross between a corgi and dachshund – away from the public eye.
Picnics and barbecues take place daily – regardless of the notoriously fickle weather – and rarely involve staff, with the Queen insisting on clearing up herself. So seriously is it taken that the Duke of Edinburgh, now 99, even designed a special trailer with compartments for all the barbecue paraphernalia – including a refrigerated section.
No doubt it will be put to good use as Her Majesty – who was photographed as a one-yearold at Balmoral in 1927 with her mother, then Duchess of York, and her grandmother, Queen Mary, the wife of George V – prepares to welcome her extended family.
Her notoriously unflappable courtiers on the estate are tasked with ensuring the select, sometimes volatile, mix of glamorous guests descending either through duty or invitation mingle harmoniously with the family and each other over the coming days and weeks.
This time around, however, there will be no steady stream of visitors and it will be more ‘Balmoral lite’ for the Queen and Philip, who have spent the past four months in lockdown at Windsor Castle with a reduced household after relocating from Buckingham Palace on March 19.
FOR the remainder of the family decamping for the annual royal pilgrimage to Aberdeenshire, they will find on arrival that the ‘big rest’ – as it is affectionately known – is significantly different from previous ones, with the usual round of entertainment significantly pared back, social distancing measures in place and regular temperature checks for the virus.
Family get-togethers will be strictly outdoors only in the grounds and everyone, except the Queen, Prince Philip and key staff wearing masks, will be barred from the main house. Instead, they will all live apart in an assortment of ‘deep-cleaned’ cottages on the estate – which, some might say, given recent tensions among a number of the Royals, could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
This year’s trip to Balmoral has already been dubbed the ‘£1.5 million holiday’ due to the unique set of circumstances facing the 50,000acre estate, which spans mountains, forests, lochs, and grouse moors and was purchased for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852.
Usually, it would have been open to the public since April – and would be welcoming visitors until the end of July, with the Queen arriving shortly thereafter.
In that time, about 70,000 tourists would visit, generating around half the private estate’s £3 million annual running costs.
But the coronavirus pandemic has put paid to that, and with the Queen, who pays for the estate’s upkeep out of her own pocket, deciding to arrive as soon as safely practicable, there has been little chance of recouping some of the income with a ‘late opening’.
As she watches from a distance the good name of her loved ones, yet again, continuing to be dragged through the mud, she must feel a sickening sense of déjà vu. It was at the same time,
same place, in the summer of 1992, when the tranquillity of breakfast was ruined one morning by lewd pictures of her daughter-in-law on the front pages.
Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, newly separated from Prince Andrew, was snapped topless on a sun lounger in the South of France, while apparently having her toes sucked by her ‘financial adviser’.
It was just the latest in a spate of embarrassments – including the release of a tape recording of an intimate late-night phone conversation between Diana, Princess of
Wales, and her supposed lover, in a scandal dubbed ‘Squidgygate’.
A similar recording of Prince Charles and his then lover, dubbed ‘Camillagate’, followed.
That year Charles and Diana separated, Princess Anne divorced Mark Phillips, Andrew and Fergie separated, and Andrew Morton published his explosive book Diana, Her True Story (a frank and damaging account of Diana’s unhappiness within the Royal Family).
To cap it all, a devastating fire broke out at the Queen’s beloved Windsor Castle. It is no wonder the Queen referred to 1992 as her ‘annus horribilis’, a year she would ‘not look back on with undiluted pleasure’.
Five years later and the Royals’ seemingly inadequate response to
Diana’s death in Paris triggered another crisis. For almost a week in that late summer of 1997 while the Queen remained silent at Balmoral, there were family schisms, rows and silences.
If not quite the 11th hour, it was perilously close by the time it was agreed that Her Majesty would broadcast to the nation and that a flag would fly at half-mast over Buckingham Palace.
Now, for the first time since those dark days, there is once again a sense of dread and unhappiness shrouding the royals.
Prince Andrew finds himself at the centre of a scandal over his illjudged relationship with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail last August while awaiting trial, and Ghislaine Maxwell.
To heap further misery on the Queen, there is also the damaging rift with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who stepped down earlier this year as senior royals and set up home in Los Angeles, California, with their baby son, Archie. While
Harry, who had his 32nd birthday party at Balmoral, and Meghan reportedly accepted an invitation in March from the Queen to holiday at the estate this summer –which would have been Archie’s first visit to Scotland – their trip from the US now seems highly unlikely, particularly given an unflinching new book, Finding Freedom, which lays bare the infighting and bitterness among the Royals that led to the couple quitting the UK.
Despite it all, the Queen’s popularity remains high and, as she has done many times before at her holiday home, she will attempt to chart a way through stormy waters by finding peace in routine, wherever it remains to be found.
The highlight of her holiday calendar, the Braemar Gathering, which takes place each September, has been cancelled and it seems unlikely that any of the Royals will attend their usual Sunday church service at Crathie Kirk.
Nor will the Army be forming a Royal Guard at the castle this year, again because of virus concerns.
However, there will still be plenty of scope for picnics and one of her favourite spots is along the picturesque banks of Loch Muick.
Balmoral is a working estate – deer stalking, grouse shooting, forestry, and farming all take place on the land – and the Queen has often taken part, having been coached by the late Margaret Rhodes, her cousin and best friend.
In her autobiography, Mrs Rhodes described hiking around the Highlands with Her Majesty, carrying their packed lunch of cold meat and fruit in canvas bags. ‘It was always fun to see a new stalker,’ Mrs Rhodes said, ‘as they suddenly realised just who that person crawling on her stomach with her nose inches from their boots was.’
Another casualty of the pandemic for the Royals is the cancellation of the annual Ghillies Ball in the castle ballroom, held each year since Victoria’s reign to thank staff.
It also seems unlikely the traditional weekend visit by the Prime Minister will go ahead.
Last year, Boris Johnson stayed over with Carrie Symonds – the first time a British leader had attended with a partner who was not their spouse.
The Queen has played hostess to 13 Prime Ministers at Balmoral – and their experiences vary.
Harold Wilson adapted well, offering to collect wood for Her Majesty’s fire. But Margaret Thatcher used to dread the visit, which she described as ‘purgatory’ and which required her to join the Queen on outdoor hikes. Terrified of being late, she would arrive 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 her washing up after a barbecue with her bare hands.
Charles and Camilla stay not at the main castle but at nearby Birkhall, the former home of the late Queen Mother, who referred to it as the ‘little big house’.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children are expected to holiday at the threebedroom former gamekeeper’s cottage, Tam-na-Ghar, in the grounds of the estate, which was a gift to William from the Queen Mother.
Fellow Royals, including Princess Anne and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, will stay in neighbouring properties.
It remains to be seen if Prince Andrew will join them, given the scrutiny he finds himself under.
But with Victoria’s sage words acting as a reminder of everything the Queen holds dear about her beloved Balmoral, no doubt she will be hoping for some calm before the continuing storm.
Chart a way through stormy waters by finding peace in routine