The Moving Story Behind the Queen’s Special Connection to Balmoral

Queen Elizabeth II famously loved being outdoors—traipsing across rolling hills and glens in her trademark printed headscarves and tweeds, often with her beloved corgis in tow—and of all her storied royal residences, it was at Balmoral where she could most easily commune with nature.

She, however, was not the first monarch to fall for the charms of the now 170-year-old estate. Set across 50,000 acres in deepest Aberdeenshire, it comprises moors, farmland, forestry, cottages, and an ivy-strewn Scottish Baronial-style castle, the latter built on the orders of Prince Albert, who purchased the land for his wife, Queen Victoria, in 1852. The couple found solace in the peace and seclusion this new summer home afforded them, spending their days deer stalking and sketching the sprawling landscape. They also began hosting an annual dance, the Ghillies Ball, which is still held today.

Although Queen Victoria’s son, Edward VII, was not as enamored with the Highlands, three of the rulers who succeeded him were: George V, George VI, and the latter’s daughter, Elizabeth II. The young princess, alongside her sister Margaret, would spend her whole year looking forward to their summers at Balmoral, where they would ride ponies, play parlor games, and have picnics on the lawns. As they grew up, though, their interests diverged: Margaret didn’t care for shooting, while Elizabeth became a keen sportswoman, developing a talent for fishing and stalking deer, which she often did while crawling on her stomach in the mud.

It was around this time, in 1939, that Elizabeth first met Philip, then a teenage cadet, at Britannia Royal Naval College. Over the next few years, he was a frequent guest at the castle, and the pair would occasionally go on drives, have tea, and walk through the gardens together. They soon fell in love, and in the summer of 1946, he proposed on the grounds of Balmoral. They spent part of their honeymoon on the estate, snowed in at the picturesque 18th-century hunting lodge Birkhall.

After her ascension to the throne in 1952, Balmoral became even more important. Between July and October every year, it was a haven for her young family, and a place that offered respite from her rigorous schedule of engagements in London. There were, of course, government papers still to be read from her famous red box, and prime ministers to be entertained, from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair. But there was also time for leisurely strolls, barbecues, rounds of charades, and chasing the tiny Prince Charles and Princess Anne down cobblestone paths as they sped away in their toy cars. Photographs from the early decades of her reign show the Queen remarkably at ease and quick to laugh—a world away from the sometimes somber, and always dutiful, sovereign seen in so many of her state portraits.

Since then, her love for her summer home has never wavered. Following the death of Prince Philip in April of 2021, she shared a rare private image of her husband of 73 years, which showed the pair sitting in the sun on the grassy pastures at the top of the Coyles of Muick in Balmoral. She returned to the estate as usual that July, and this July, too, following her Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June. Just two days before her death on September 8, 2022, she performed the last of her major royal duties in the drawing room of the castle, accepting the resignation of Boris Johnson and shaking hands with Liz Truss, who was—staggeringly—her 15th prime minister. For the occasion, the Queen chose a pale blue shirt, a grey cardigan and a pleated skirt made from Balmoral tartan.

In the end, it was fitting that her long and illustrious life came to a close in one of the places in the world in which she was happiest—one that holds more than nine decades’ worth of memories.

Below, browse the best vintage photographs of the Queen at Balmoral.