Everything about Balmoral Castle totally explained
Balmoral Castle is a large
estate house situated in the area of
Aberdeenshire,
Scotland known as
Royal Deeside. The estate was purchased by
Queen Victoria's consort Prince Albert, and remains a favourite summer
royal residence.
The Balmoral
estate has been passed down the generations and has gradually expanded to more than 260 square kilometres (65,000 acres).
Today it's a working estate, employing 50 full time staff and 50 to 100 part time.
Early history
The Balmoral Estate began as a home built by Sir
William Drummond in 1390. The estate was formerly owned by
King Robert II (1316–1390), who had a
hunting lodge in the area. After Drummond, the estate was sold to Alexander Gordon, the 3rd
Earl of Huntly, in the 15th century. The estate remained in the family's hands until it was sold in 1662 to the
Farquharsons of Invery, who sold the estate in 1798 to the 2nd
Earl of Fife. The estate formed part of the
coronation activities of
King George IV in 1822.
Royal residence
Balmoral is today best known as a royal residence, the summer retreat of
Queen Elizabeth II and the
Duke of Edinburgh. Its history as a royal residence dates back to 1848, when the house was
rented to
Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert by the trustees of
Sir Robert Gordon (who had obtained a long-term lease of the castle in 1830 and died in 1847). They very much enjoyed their stay in the house, and they paid just over
£30,000 for full ownership in 1852. Prince Albert immediately started making plans with
William Smith to extend the existing 15th century castle, and make a "new" and bigger castle fit for the royal family.
In 1856 the building was completed, it now being a full and working estate with around 100 buildings surrounding the castle. The castle, not including its land and estate, is valued at around £160 million.
Along with
Sandringham House, Balmoral is the private property of the
British royal family and not part of the
royal estate. Their succession became an issue in 1936, when
Edward VIII abdicated as king. Being legacies Edward had inherited from his father,
George V, the estates didn't automatically pass to his younger brother
George VI on abdication. George had to explicitly purchase Balmoral and Sandringham from Edward so that they could remain private retreats for the monarch's family.
Today, the Balmoral Estate is still in working order, occupying over 200
km² of land. The Royal Family employs around 50 full-time and 50–100 part-time staff to maintain the estate and look after the animals. The part-time staff are used particularly when the Queen makes her annual visit.
There has been some speculation that Balmoral Castle may have been earmarked as a royal refuge in the event of nuclear war. In the 1960's, war plans apparently envisaged evacuating the
Sovereign to the
Royal Yacht Britannia, but this might not have been practical, and a land-based refuge would have been desirable. It would appear that, contrary to persistent rumour, there were no plans for the Sovereign to join the
Prime Minister at the
Corsham bunker complex known variously as
Hawthorn, Subterfuge, Site 3, Burlington, or Turnstile.
Buckingham Palace and
Windsor Castle would both have been too vulnerable, the former as being in the heart of
London — a major target in its own right — and Windsor because of its proximity to
Heathrow Airport.
The Queen was in residence at Balmoral at the time of the
death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Her initial decision not to return to
London or to mourn more publicly was much criticised at the time. Her private discussions with
Prime Minister Tony Blair are dramatised in
Stephen Frears' film
The Queen (2006).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Balmoral Castle'.
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