Balmoral, the most private, beloved and secret of Elizabeth II’s castles, opens its doors to royal privacy

Queen Elizabeth II’s most beloved and private palace and where she spent all her summers will open to the public for the first time. It will not be the gardens but the visit to the rooms of the royal residence, the bedroom of the queen and the king when they stay there, the room of the queen’s last audience with the prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss can be seen intact for the first time . An adult experience: no kids allowed, like in English pubs.

In exchange for £150 and with a 5 o’clock tea at the Palace, Balmoral can be visited in midsummerbetween May and mid-August, on guided tours.

It will be the first time since the young Queen Victoria will carry out a “nice little castle in the old Scottish style” his beloved refuge in the Highlands that the royal apartments at Balmoral Castle will open to the public.

Called the “Balmoral Experience,” the guided tours will last until mid-August, when the Royal Family arrives in full. They will lead to 40 people a day in the heart of the castle, which has been a home away from home for generations of royalty for over 170 years. His the most private, loved and secret place.

Balmoral, the soul of the family

Balmoral is the soul of the British royal family in a state of privacy. The place where they relax, where their children grew up and where their grandchildren have fun today. There they organize their hunts, their fishing days and picnics and where Prince Philip cooked his famous “barbecue” to guests and the queen washed the dishes when they received their closest friends.

The place where The queen approved of her sons’ wives and future wives, like Diana and Fergie. At the breakfast table, the queen He became angry over his children’s scandals in the “annus horribilis” of the British tabloids, which the private secretary tried to hide.

In his bedElizabeth II learned of Princess Diana’s death in Paris and sitting at his desk he decided that he would not go to London to mourn her, despite insistent calls from Prime Minister Tony Blair on his old phone.

His stone palace It was the place chosen by Elizabeth II to spend your last daysknowing that bone cancer would kill her before she returned to London. The decoration has remained over time; in the 60s. Even the upholstery. A electric stove He warmed up his freezing office.

“Discover the history and heritage of Balmoral,” says the royal blurb. “Travel back in time from the purchase of the Balmoral estate by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to the present day, where you will see a selection of rooms within the castle used by Their Majesties, the King and Queen and others members of the Royal Family”.

Guided tours are considered a test for staff to evaluate how the building copes with the growing number of visitors.

The intimacies of the tour

Queen Victoria and King Albert purchased the lease of Balmoral in 1848. In 1855 the castle was completely rebuilt. The building is fragile and It is not intended for tourism.

The fully guided tour will include the rooms used by the King and Queen when they stay there. There will be no strings to separate parts of the rooms or furniture, since it is still a real house and It’s not becoming a museum.

It will be shown to the public two dining rooms: a smaller and more formal than the larger family dining room; the livingroom; the atrium and the red corridor, where King Charles III greeted Rishi Sunak.

They will also be on display chandeliers made for the living roomat Victoria’s request, who hold elaborate deer trophies in honor of their love of country. Tickets sell quickly. But anyone who misses out on the first round can keep an eye out for a small planned reprint of entries.

The entrance fee is similar to guided tours of Buckingham Palace, which cost £95 per person. While family guided tours, designed specifically for families with young children, cost £60 per person and children under five are free. The tour of Highgrove Gardens, which lasts 90 minutes and is led by an expert guide, costs £34.50.

The watercolors of King Charles

Chales III painted watercolours, especially during his holidays at Balmoral. The King’s art will be displayed at Balmoral over the summer to attract incoming tourists one of the largest collections of his work shown publicly in Scotland.

The King is a regular contributor to the Caithness Society of Artists art exhibition, which coincides with his regular summer stay at Mey Castle, the Queen Mother’s former Scottish retreat, near John O’Groats. He usually exhibits one or two works there.

This year’s Balmoral visitor experience will include a ‘special exhibition’ of the King’s watercolors in the ballroom, as well as a collection of clothes worn by Charles and Camilla, the late Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother.

People can also see Sir Edwin Landseer’s most famous artwork, a painting of Albert’s favorite greyhound, Eos. The staff seen in the painting is also on display.

So that visitors could also enjoy the palace gardens, the king ordered the construction of a giant thistle-themed labyrinth. It is only the second new royal labyrinth in 300 years, the other being built at Dumfries House in Ayrshire.

Balmoral it relies on visitors to pay about half its costs annual operating costs of millions of pounds. General entry costs up to £17.50 and allows access up to now to the ballroom and the castle park.

Royal author Robert Hardman said he predicted the king would open Balmoral. In his biography he says that the Queen wanted Balmoral it was his memory among the British people, his memorythe place he chose to die and to be visited.

About 20 thousand hectares in Scotland

Balmoral Castle is a large British-style estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and the residence of the British royal family. It is located near the village of Crathie, 14km west of Ballater and 80km west of Aberdeen.

The countryside and its original stone castle were purchased from the Farquharson family in 1852 by Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. Shortly afterwards it was discovered that the house it was too small and the present Balmoral Castle was commissioned. The architect was William Smith of Aberdeen and his designs were modified by Prince Albert.

Balmoral remains private property of the monarch and it is not part of the Crown Estate. It was the summer residence of Elizabeth II, who died there on 8 September 2022.

The castle is an example of Scottish stately architecture. The new castle was completed in 1856 and the old one was demolished shortly afterwards.

Balmoral It was expanded by subsequent members of the royal family and today covers an area of ​​approximately 20,000 hectares. It’s a huge working farm, which includes spectacular mountains and rivers, forests and farmlandas well as managing herds of deer, Highland cattle, sheep and ponies.

It was originally purchased privately by Prince Albert, for Queen Victoria, which means this no patrimonial income goes to Parliament or to the public treasury, as would be the case with property owned outright by the monarch, under the Civil List Act of 1760.

Along with Sandringham in Norfolk, Edward VIII inherited the Balmoral estate upon his accession to the throne in 1936. However, when he abdicated later that year, they retained ownership. A financial agreement was made, under which Balmoral and Sandringham were purchased by Edward’s brother and successor to the Crown, George VI.

Isabella II he inherited the Balmoral estate from his father and then, after his death, The property passed to his eldest son, King Charles III. But the property is managed by trusts with deeds of nomination and nomination.

How is Balmoral

Balmoral Estate is located within the Cairngorms National Park and partly within the Deeside and Lochnagar National Scenic Area. The 20,000 hectare estate encompasses a wide variety of landscapes, from the River Dee valley to the open mountains. There are seven Munros (Scottish hills over 914.4m) within the estate, the highest of which is Lochnagar at 1,155 metres.

The estate extends to Loch Muick in the south-east, where there is an ancient boathouse and the Royal Bothy (hunting lodge), now called Glas-allt-Shiel, built by Victoria.

About 3,200 hectares of the farm are covered with trees, and nearly 1,200 hectares are used for forestry activities that produce nearly 10,000 tons of wood per year. Ballochbuie Forest, one of the largest remaining areas of ancient Caledonian pine in Scotland, consists of around 1,200 hectares.

The royal family employs around 50 people full time and between 50 and 100 part time to maintain the workspace.

There are around 150 buildings inside property, including Birkhall, the former manor of Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, which she inherited and where King Chales and Camilla live when they go to Scotland. They spent their honeymoon and Covid confinement there.

Craigowan Lodge is used regularly by family and friends of the Royal Family. It was also used during the preparation of Balmoral Castle for a royal visit. Queen Elizabeth loved it there look like a housewife, cook and wash dishes.