Inside lavish Balmoral estate as King Charles allows public to see where late Queen died
In a historic first King Charles is opening up the doors to Balmoral Castle, and the public will be able to see inside the Royal Family’s favourite holiday home for themselves
The doors of Balmoral Castle are being opened to the public for the very first time by King Charles.
Royal fans will have the opportunity to see what was the late Queen Elizabeth’s favourite of the many royal residences and where she spent her final days. The historic castle has been owned by the royals since 1852, when Prince Albert purchased it for him and Queen Victoria to enjoy as a holiday retreat.
Since then the 50,000-acre estate has been one of the favourite places for the Royal Family to spend their summer holidays, where they make the most of outdoor pursuits like walking the dogs, grouse shoots, and enjoying family picnics and barbecues.
The gardens of Balmoral have also been updated this year and the public can visit these, but if you are keen to see inside the castle itself, it will set you back £100 for a ticket - or £150 if you would like an afternoon tea fit for a King included.
The tour will see you guided around the interior of the castle by experts and places are limited at only 40 tickets available each day between 4 July and 1 August, and watercolours from the King’s collection will be on display, as well as outfits worn by the monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth, and the Queen Mother.
The original castle on the estate wasn’t quite up to scratch for Albert and Victoria when they bought the estate, so they commissioned a new one to be built in its place, which was completed in 1855. Balmoral is a privately owned royal residence and is therefore not part of the Crown Estate, and has been passed down to each monarch since the death of Queen Victoria.
Balmoral was where the Queen was happiest ( Image: Getty Images)
Before now, the only insights available to the public about what life for the royals is like at Balmoral came from any family photos they chose to release or things the family have said publicly themselves.
In 2016, Princess Eugenie described their summer holidays at Balmoral in a documentary released to mark the late Queen’s 90th birthday. She called it "the most beautiful place on earth" and noted it was where "Granny is most happy".
It was widely known to be one of the late Queen’s favourite places to spend her time, and Eugenie explained "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."
She added that while they spent their summer holiday there in August, the family would enjoy "Walks, picnics, dogs – a lot of dogs, there’s always dogs – and people coming in and out all the time."
Prince Harry also provided some insight into life at Balmoral in his memoir Spare, during which he described it as "simply paradise. A cross between Disney World and some sacred druid grove."
Harry described Balmoral as ’paradise’ ( Image: Daily Mirror)
The Duke of Sussex described how he remembered the gothic-revival castle in great detail, from the entrance to - "the wide portico and three grey-black speckled granite steps leading up to the massive front door of whisky-coloured oak" - to the "hooks for fishing rods and walking sticks and rubber waders and heavy waterproofs - so many waterproofs" and the bedroom he had used there as a child.
He and his brother would bow to statue of Queen Victoria as they passed it, and the late Queen preferred to take a private lift upstairs, taking her many corgis along with her for the ride.
Harry also noted that in the Aberdeenshire property, "everything at Balmoral was either old or made to look so. The castle was a playground, a hunting lodge, but also a stage."
Before Charles decided to open up the castle doors to the public, these snapshots were the only real insider information available to royal fans about exactly what the royals got up to at Balmoral, but now they will be able to take it in for themselves.
There are around 150 buildings on the gargantuan estate and Birkhall, which belongs to King Charles and where he regularly stayed during his tenure as the Prince of Wales, is a neighbouring 5000-acre estate that was also purchased by Prince Albert for his son at the same time he bought Balmoral.
The royals were known to drop their formal public personas when they spent time together at Balmoral, and when they put on a family barbecue, there would be no staff in sight helping out. Sheena Stuart, who worked as a housekeeper at Balmoral, previously told Countryfile that Prince Philip and the late Queen took leading roles in running the outdoor cooking, "The Duke, he cooks, the Queen sets up the table...There are no staff that come out to serve."
The late Queen and Prince Philip used to spend about two months of the summer up in the Aberdeenshire paradise away from the prying eyes of the spotlight, starting off their holiday at Craigowan Lodge, a smaller property on the estate.
It is reportedly where Prince Philip proposed to the young Elizabeth, and he was also dedicated to the Scottish property, spending a great deal of time on the grounds, and adding a kitchen garden.
Other members of the family like Princess Anne and her children Peter and Zara, Prince Andrew and his daughters, and Kate and William also pop in to stay at various points over a two-week period in August, and the royals often attending the Braemar gathering nearby in the first weekend in September, where they watch traditional Highland Games.
Balmoral is also home to the Ghillies Ball, which was instituted by Victoria and Albert as a summer party for their staff, which saw them let their hair down - ’Ghillie’ is the gaelic word for ’attendant’ - and partake in traditional Scottish reels.
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