BALMORAL A castle fit for a Queen

Located in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Balmoral Castle is one of two personal and private residences owned by The Royal Family, unlike the Royal Palaces, that belong to the Crown...

The Royal Family first became interested in Balmoral in 1847 when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Ardverikie on the edge of Loch Laggan in the west Highlands of Scotland. Their time there was marred by terrible weather - Queen Victoria mentioned the "pouring rain" many times in her diary.

While at Ardverikie the son of the Queen's physician, Sir James Clark, wrote a number of letters to his father who was convalescing at Balmoral. The letters from Balmoral cribed blue skies and fine weather - the news of dry weather interested Prince Albert. In 1848 it was, therefore, suggested that the Balmoral climate would make a more suitable Scottish residence for the Queen, with the artist James Giles commissioned to make watercolors of a plan of the house.

The decision was soon made to acquire the remaining 27-year lease for Prince Albert, and in 1852 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought the Castle outright.

At this point, we should mention the modern-day castle that can be visited by the general public is more of an impressively large estate house than a castle.

The original Balmoral Castle was built in the fifteenth century and consisted of a square tower with battlements and a thick stone wall surrounding a small square. By 1746, a house had been added to it by the Farquarsons of Inverey. When Sir Robert Gordon acquired the lease in 1830 he demolished most of the building, reconstructing it as a small castle in the Scottish Baronial Style.

After Queen Victoria bought the Castle in 1852, plans were made to build a new castle about 100 yards north-west of the old building designed by the city of Aberdeen architect William Smith.