As Her Majesty is due to receive her fifteenth Prime Minister, this time at her summer residence, this post takes a look inside Balmoral Castle; the Royal Family’s private Scottish estate:

Balmoral has been owned by the royal family for 170 years, after being purchased by Queen Victoria’s prince consort; Prince Albert in 1852. The estate remains a private residence nestled in the heart of the Scottish countryside and is The Queen’s chosen holiday retreat, frequented every year from July to October.

This year, however, she won’t be receiving the latest PM at Buckingham Palace, as is custom, but at Balmoral Castle where the monarch is currently enjoying her annual summer retreat with her family. This is due to the unusual timing of ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation and subsequent campaign for the next leader. A prime minister at Balmoral, however, is not a foreign concept, as a non-negotiable visit to the castle is a fixture of every PM’s calendar. PMs are expected to take part in hikes, picnics and parlour games with fishing or deer stalking also on offer, along with the requisite tea at 4pm, formal dinners and bagpipes at breakfast.

Despite the elite guests, Balmoral opens it’s gardens each year to the fee-paying public, and occasionally the ballroom is also available to view, but the rest of the house remains entirely private, seen only by the royal family, the occasional diplomat, and the 50 full-time and 50-100 part-time staff that work there. Photographs of the inside are rare but a few quick snaps from the 90s and black and white images from Victoria’s reign, give a glimpse of the comfortable interiors of the grand castle.

Largely designed by Prince Albert in the 1850s, the castle has kept much of its original decor, including the dizzy tartan carpets and drapes, unrestrained love of pinewood and the Queen Victoria wallpaper featured in the hallway. Recent images give us a view into what the interiors of the estate may look like today and, by many accounts, very little has been changed during HM Elizabeth II’s reign. Much of the main house has been preserved since Queen Victoria began holidaying there over 170 years ago, including the bounty of engravings and photographs of Albert and the children.

In a 1960s biography of Prince Philip, written by his cousin Alexandra Queen of Yugoslavia, the author goes into detail about her own experiences at the castle:

‘Balmoral doesn’t have many guest rooms; unexpectedly they’re all on the ground floor. […] The nearest bathroom a block away down a corridor. […]The whitewashed lobby, the overwhelming array everywhere of antlers and stags heads and even hides hung like tapestries on the wall. […] Yet they all contributed to the period charm, like the profusion of tartan doyleys [sic] and mats, the tartan rugs that covered the mysterious chests in the corridors, the statues of Albert and the serene paintings everywhere of Scottish landscapes and Landseer dogs.’

Alexandra, Queen of Yugoslavia Prince Philip: A Family Portrait

The house reportedly costs £3 million per year to run with approximately 50,000 acres of land and 150 buildings on site – these include Birkhall, the estate of Prince Charles. Included in the estate are well-maintained grouse moors, forests, farmland, highland deer, ponies, horses and deer, as well as mountains, valleys and rivers.

Though the public is restricted from seeing the interior of the castle, peeks of the decor have been released through the occasional photograph of a diplomatic visit or documentary such as The Queen at 90, which aired on ITV in 2016 and featured a short clip of then-Prime Minister David Cameron being received by The Queen in her tartan-carpeted office within Balmoral (seen above and below). Numerous articles have been published, dissecting the various quirks around this room, from the small electric heater placed in front of the fireplace, the row of dog beds in front of the credenza and even a plush corgi teddy, all pointing to the homely environment The Queen has created in her summer residence.

The Queen’s laidback approach to home decor should be no surprise. Known for being thrifty, the monarch comes from an era of resourcefulness, which includes the reams of wallpaper that are kept in Balmoral from Queen Victoria’s reign, ready and waiting to replace torn sections. Her cosy interiors have been seen in the private apartments of her other home too, including Windsor Castle, which also features and array of knick-knacks and mementos, just like Balmoral’s drawing room.

*Edited to add: It was at Balmoral, on Thursday afternoon, that The Queen passed away with her eldest son and daughter by her side. Until Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin is taken to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, this Sunday, she will lie in rest in Balmoral Castle’s ballroom (above) where members of the household can pay their respects.

You can pay your own respects to Britain’s longest serving monarch at The Royal Family’s official book of condolences here. The state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II will be held on Monday 19th September.

See more royal residences by browsing the ‘royalty‘ tag, or come back soon for more peeks into the unseen quarters of some of their most famous homes.

feature image: Stuart Yeates CC sa-by 2.0