Balmoral Castle

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Image:Balmoral Castle.jpg Image:Balmoral by queen.JPG

Balmoral Castle is a large mansion situated in the area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland known as Royal Deeside. The estate was purchased by Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert, and remains a favourite summer royal residence.

1 Early history
2 Royal residence
3 See also
4 External links

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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, who had a hunting lodge in the area. After Drummond, the estate was sold to Alexander Gordon, the son of the 2nd Earl of Huntly, in the 15th century. The estate remained in the family's hands until it was sold in 1662, to Farquarson's of Invery.

The family were given the title "Earl of Balmoral" and it remained until the sale of the estate in 1798 to the 2nd Earl of Fife. The estate formed part of the coronation activities of King George IV in 1822.

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Royal residence

Balmoral is today best known as a Royal Residence, the summer retreat of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. The history as a Royal Residence dates back to 1848, when the house was rented to both the Queen and the Prince Consort by the then Duke of Fife. They very much enjoyed their stay in the house, and they paid just over £30,000 for the full ownership of the house. The Prince Consort immediately started making plans to extend the existing fifteenth century castle, and make a 'new' and bigger castle fit for a Queen.

New evidence shows that the funding for Balmoral came chiefly from an eccentric poet, prison reformer and jeweller named John Camden Nield. He left the Queen £500,000 in his will, which was a great help to the Royal Family's building ambitions.

In 1856 the building was completed, it now being a full and working estate with around 100 buildings surrounding the castle itself. The castle not including its land and estate is valued at around £160 million and remains a privately owned by the British Royal Family.

Today, the Balmoral Estate is still a 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 etc. 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 1960s 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, Subtefuge, 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 - major target in its own right - and Windsor because of its proximity to Heathrow Airport.

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