Balmoral Castle is in Aberdeenshire – and is usually known as The Queen’s private residence in Scotland – while the rest of the family enjoy the estate with their grandparents.
|Balmoral Castle in 1854 painted|
by Queen Victoria during its
Queen Victoria had, in 1848, found the house “small but pretty”, and recorded in her diary that: “All seemed to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils”.
Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s Prince Consort, bought it in 1852 and in the following years had it rebuilt in white granite as a castellated mansion in Scottish baronial style.
The grounds were laid out by Prince Albert in the 1850s and planted out as parterre gardens with rare conifers, while plantations were established around the house.
|South front of Balmoral Castle|
The couple took a great interest in their staff setting up a lending library; while they also encouraged new ideas ... developed a model dairy, which was completed by the Queen after her husband’s death in 1861.
Near the Castle the Queen created her cottage garden around a private house, known as the Garden Cottage, while later in the 1920s Queen Mary, George V’s wife, altered it to include a sunken garden.
|Edward VII relaxing at Balmoral|
photographed by his wife, Alexandra
In our present Queen’s reign (1952 - ....) the Duke of Edinburgh, her husband, has improved the gardens – redesigning the herbaceous borders, planting up a shrubbery around the river and adding a water garden near Victoria’s Garden Cottage.
|North-West corner of Balmoral Castle|
Today it is a working estate – deer stalking, grouse shoots, forestry and farming are the main land uses, while there are tours to be booked, and cottages to rent.
The Castle, gardens and exhibitions (especially in this Diamond Jubilee Year) are open to the public from April to July.
Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901) in her journals described Balmoral as “my dear paradise in the Highlands” ...
That is B for Balmoral Castle ... a Scottish baronial castellated mansion built for Queen Victoria in the 1850s; now managed by the Balmoral Estates ... part of the ABC series Aspects of British Castles
By the way I meant to add yesterday - that Bob Scotney is also doing Castles - his A was for Amberley - should you wish to visit ...
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