Who Owns Balmoral Castle now?

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Balmoral Castle is a large property residence in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a house of the British royal family. This answers the question of who owns Balmoral Castle now, King Charles III the current owner of Balmoral Castle. It is close to the village of Crathie, nine miles (14 km) west of Ballater and 50 miles (80 km) west of Aberdeen.  The property and its authentic fortress had been sold from the Farquharson family in 1852 through Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Soon afterwards the residence become determined to be too small and the present day Balmoral Castle become commissioned. The architect become William Smith of Aberdeen, and his designs had been amended through Prince Albert.

Balmoral stays the personal belongings of the monarch and isn’t always a part of the Crown Estate. It become the summer time season house of Queen Elizabeth II, who died there on eight September 2022. The fortress is an instance of Scottish baronial architecture, and is assessed through Historic Environment Scotland as a class A listed building. The new fortress become finished in 1856 and the vintage fortress demolished quickly thereafter. The Balmoral Estate has been delivered to through successive individuals of the royal family, and now covers a place of about 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares). It is a operating property, including grouse moors, forestry and farmland, in addition to controlled herds of deer, Highland cattle, sheep and ponies.

History of Balmoral Castle

From 1316 to 1390, King Robert II of Scotland had a hunting lodge on the site. Historical records also indicate that Sir William Drummond built a house at Balmoral in 1390. Alexander Gordon, second son of the 1st Earl of Huntly, later leased the property. The Gordons built a tower house on the site. Charles Farquharson of Inverey also known as the “Black Colonel” and brother of John Farquharson, took over the estate in 1662. The Farquharsons were Jacobite sympathizers and James Farquharson of Balmoral was involved in the rebellions of 1715 and 1745. During 1746, he was wounded at the Battle of Falkirk.

The Farquharsons’ lands were confiscated and given to the Farquharsons of Auchendryne. In 1798 James Duff, 2nd Earl of Fife acquired Balmoral and leased the castle. Sir Robert Gordon, younger brother of the 4th Earl of Aberdeen, acquired the leasehold in 1830. He made major changes to the original Balmoral Castle, including baronial-style extensions designed by John Smith of Aberdeen.

The royal acquisition and the History until Who Owns Balmoral Castle now

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert first visited Scotland in 1842, five years after their accession to the throne and two years after their marriage. During this first visit they stayed in Edinburgh and at Taymouth Castle in Perthshire, home of the Marquess of Breadalbane. They returned in 1844 to stay at Blair Castle and in 1847 when they rented the Ardverikie House from LochLaggan. Frequent rain during the last voyage resulted in Sir James Clark, the Queen’s physician, recommending Deeside instead due to the healthier climate.

Sir Robert Gordon died in 1847 and his lease of Balmoral reverted to Lord Aberdeen. In February 1848 it was agreed that Prince Albert would purchase the remainder of the Balmoral lease, including furnishings and staff, without first seeing the property. The royal couple arrived on September 8, 1848 for their first visit Victoria found the house “small but lovely” and noted in her diary: “everything seemed to breathe freedom and peace and made someone forget the world and it’s atrocities.

The surrounding mountains reminded her of Thuringia, Albert’s homeland in Germany. The house was quickly found to be too small and in 1848 John and William Smith were commissioned to design new offices, cottages and other outbuildings. Improvements were also made to the estate’s woodland, gardens and buildings with the help of landscape gardener James Beattie and possibly painter James Giles.

Major extensions to the old house were considered in 1849, but by then negotiations were taking place to purchase the estate from the trustees of the late Earl Fife. After seeing a corrugated iron cottage at the 1851 World’s Fair, Prince Albert commissioned E. T. Bellhouse & Co. to design a prefabricated iron building for Balmoral to serve as a temporary ballroom and dining room.  

It was in use on 1 October 1851 and served as a ballroom until 1856. The sale was completed in June 1852, the price was £32,000 (equivalent to £3,699,092 in 2021) and Prince Albert was officially sworn in this fall. At the same time the neighboring Birkhall estate was purchased and the lease of Abergeldie Castle was also secured. To commemorate this, a cairn was raised on the hills above the castle, the first of many cairns on the estate.

The new house construction

Victoria and Albert’s growing family, the need for additional staff and the required premises for visiting friends and official visitors, such as cabinet members, meant that expanding the existing structure would not be sufficient, and the a bigger house had to be built. In early 1852 William Smith was commissioned. William Burn sought an interview with the prince, ostensibly to complain that Smith had previously plagiarized his work, but Burn was unsuccessful in denying Smith the appointment. William Smith’s designs were modified by Prince Albert, who was very interested in details such as turrets and windows.

Construction began in mid-1853 on a site approximately 100 yards (90 meters) northwest of the original building, which was believed to have the better view. Another consideration was that the family could continue to use the old house during the construction work. Queen Victoria laid the cornerstone on the 28 September 1853 during his annual fall visit. Shortly after his arrival at the estate in the fall, news circulated of the fall of Sevastopol, the end of the Crimean War, prompting wild celebrations among kings and locals alike. During a visit to the estate shortly afterwards, Prince Friedrich von Prussia held the hand of Princess Victoria.

The new house was completed in 1856 and the old castle was later demolished. In the autumn of 1857 a new bridge over the Dee, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was completed linking Crathie and Balmoral. Balmoral Castle was built of granite quarried at Invergelder on the estate. It consists of two main blocks, each arranged around a patio. The south-west block contains the main rooms, while the north-east contains the service wings. To the south-east is a 24-metre clock tower with turrets, one of which has a balustrade resembling that of Castle Fraser.

Similar in style to the demolished castle of the 1830s, the architecture of the new house is considered somewhat old-fashioned for its time when contrasted with the richer forms of Scottish mansion used by William Burn and others in the 1850s. As an expression of Scottish lordship, it is sometimes described as overly neat, pedantic and even Germanic, due to Prince Albert’s influence on the design and their adoption of a Scottish architectural style influenced the ongoing revival of Highland culture. They decked out Balmoral in tartans and took part in the Highland Games at Braemar. Queen Victoria expressed her affinity with Scotland and even declared herself a Jacobite. In conjunction with the work of Sir Walter Scott, this became an important factor in encouraging the adoption of Highland culture by the Lowland Scots.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Balmoral Castle

Even before the new home was completed, the royal couple’s pattern of life in the Highlands was soon set. Victoria took long walks of up to four hours a day and Albert spent many days hunting deer and wildlife. In 1849, the diarist Charles Greville described his life at Balmoral as aristocratic rather than royal. Victoria initiated a policy of hiring artists to accommodate Balmoral, its entourage and staff. Numerous painters have worked at Balmoral over the years including Edwin and Charles Landseer and Carl Haag.

During the 1850’s new plantations were established near the house and exotic conifers were planted on the grounds. Prince Albert played an active part in these improvements, overseeing the design of the flower beds, the rerouting of the main road north of the river over a new bridge, and the plans for the farm buildings. Among these buildings was a model dairy which he developed in 1861, the year of his death. The dairy was completed by Victoria. She later erected several monuments to her husband on the property. These include a pyramid-shaped cairn erected on top of Craig Lurachain a year after Albert’s death. A large statue of Albert with a dog and a gun by William Theed was unveiled on October 15, 1867, the 28th anniversary of their engagement.

After Albert’s death, Victoria spent some time at Balmoral, where she stayed up to four months a year in early summer and autumn. He displayed numerous Albert memorabilia. Few additional changes were made to the site, with the exception of some changes to the mountain trails, the construction of several burial mounds and memorials, and the addition of a few cabins. (Karim Cottage and Baile na Coille) built for executives.  

During this time, Victoria became dependent on her servant, John Brown. He was a local Crathie ghillie who became one of his closest companions during his long mourning. In 1887, Balmoral Castle was the birthplace of Victoria Eugenie, Queen Victoria’s granddaughter. She was born to Princess Beatrice, fifth daughter of Victoria and Albert. Victoria Eugenia became Queen of Spain when she married King Alfonso XIII in 1906. married. In September 1896, Victoria received Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and Empress Alexandra, Victoria’s granddaughter, at Balmoral. Four years later, Victoria made her last visit to the estate, three months before her death on January 22, 1901.

After Queen Victoria

After Victoria’s death, the royal family continued to wear Balmoral on their annual autumn visits. George V made significant improvements in the 1910s and 1920s, including the formal gardens to the south of the castle. Royal visits to Balmoral castle were ceases During the Second World War. Also, due to the conflict with Germany, the Danziger Schild, an inn built by Victoria in Ballochbuie, was renamed the Garbh Allt Schild, and the “King of Prussia’s Fountain” was removed from the site in . In the decade In the 1950s, Prince Philip added herbaceous borders and a water garden. In the 1980s, new staff buildings were built near the castle.

The Death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen Elizabeth II had been at the castle for her annual summer holiday since July 2022, receiving medical attention. In a break with tradition, Balmoral Castle, instead of on the site of Buckingham Palace, was it that the site was used for the appointment of British Prime Minister Liz Truss on 6 September 2022 due to concerns over the Queen’s mobility. The Queen died at 15:10 BST on 8 September at Balmoral 2022 Aged 96, the first time a British monarch has died in Scotland since James V in 1542, and the first monarch to die at Balmoral. The Queen’s body rested for three days in the Ballroom of the Castle to allow the royal family, estate staff and neighbors to pay their respects. On September 11th she was transported to Edinburgh for the start of the State Funeral.

Also see the 49 of the Best Castles in Ireland 

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