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when the hearse carries Queen Elizabeth IIbody of Pulled out the gates of Balmoral Castle on Sundaywhich marked the monarch’s final departure from the personal sanctuary, where she could shed the shackles of ceremonies and rituals for a few weeks each year.
The sprawling estate in the Scottish Highlands west of Aberdeen is where Elizabeth rides her beloved horses, picnicks and pushes her children around in tricycles and carriages, eschewing the form of Buckingham Palace.
“When . “When she went in, she was able to be a wife, a loving wife, a loving mom, a loving grandmother, and then a loving great grandma — and an auntie — and become normal.”
It’s a shift that happens every summer, when the royal family will spend most of August and September at the estate, which has been a royal haven since 1852, when Prince Albert gave his wife, Queen Victoria bought it.
Balmoral was the family’s “private wilderness”, where a consummate Land Rover team would pick up guests every morning during filming and stalking season, Jonathan Dimbleby wrote in his 1994 biography of Prince Charles , Prince Charles became King Charles III after the death of his mother.
But there are other attractions as well.
“In the stables, the queen’s horses were once again geared up, their coats tidied up, their saddles and reins soaped, and their stirrups polished,” Dimbleby wrote. “The discreetly trained domestic servants were only present when needed, They know that being seen or heard without a purpose would be a break-in.”
At Balmoral, a woman remembered for wearing a robe and crown or a grandmother’s dress and wide-brimmed hat can tie a scarf around her head, snuggle up in a warm jacket, and put on a pair of boots, Explore a forest covered in heather and pine, inhabited by deer, bees and butterflies.
This casual feeling may bring out the naughty side of the queen.
A former royal protection officer, Richard Griffin, remembers accompanying the Queen on a picnic when they encountered two American hikers. Tourists, who did not recognize Elizabeth, asked how long she had been in the area. When she answered “over 80 years”, they asked her if she had ever met the Queen.
“She had a flash of, ‘Well, I don’t, but Dickie sees her here a lot’,” Griffin told Sky News earlier this year at an event marking the monarch’s 70th anniversary.
A hiker then turned to Griffin and asked what kind of person the Queen was. He replied: “She can be grumpy at times, but she has a lovely sense of humour.”
After a photo with the Queen, unsuspecting hikers wave goodbye and continue their trek.
“Then Her Majesty said to me, ‘When he shows these pictures to his friends in America, I’d love to be a fly on the wall. Hopefully someone can tell him who I am,'” Griffin recalled.
The Queen’s love of Balmoral highlights the royal family’s close ties to Scotland, which began with her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who pioneered the royal tradition of wearing tartan.
During the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the Queen was said to have wanted to vote against it, although she was unable to express her views publicly. Former Prime Minister David Cameron later confirmed this, telling how her husband, the late Prince Philip, tried to hide the morning papers in order to keep the news afloat on the day a poll suggested Scots might vote to leave Balmoral. Peace of Balmoral.U.K.
“But, of course, when she got the results, he said she grunted with satisfaction when she heard that Britain would remain united,” royal historian Robert Lacey told the BBC on Friday.
But essentially, Balmoral is the Queen’s home.
Elizabeth and Philip temporarily took a break from state affairs and spent more time at Balmoral.
A home movie of a documentary about the Queen’s 90th birthday shared with the BBC shows the couple playing with Charles and his sister Anne on the lawn outside Balmoral Castle, with Philip in a red pony carriage from Sliding down the grassy slope, then tipping over, his kilt fluttering in the breeze.
In later years, Dimbleby wrote, Charles played ping pong and football in the yard and was even allowed to ride his bike to the village store, despite being followed by a policeman.
Lacey told The Associated Press that the Queen’s death in Scotland was “very significant.”
“Because aside from her love of that particular country, it’s the countryside, the way it exposed her to nature,” he said.
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