Birkhall

View of Birkhall

Birkhall (from the Scots Birk Hauch : " Birken - Feuchtwiese ") is a 210 km² property southwest of Ballater on the River Muick in Royal Deeside , Aberdeenshire , Scotland . Since 2002 it has been the Scottish country residence of the British heir to the throne Charles, Prince of Wales .

history

The property was built in 1745 by the Scottish Farquharson family , passed from them to members of the Gordon family and was acquired in 1849 by Prince Albert , husband of Queen Victoria , for their eldest son Edward, Prince of Wales and to round off the Balmoral Estate . Edward used Birkhall only once - he preferred the larger Abergeldie Castle , so Queen Victoria bought it back from him in 1884 in order to have enough space for the extensive family and servants during the royal summer retreat in Balmoral. From the late 19th century it was used by Dighton Probyn , the treasurer of King Edward VII .

His son George V. gave Birkhall in the 1930s for use to his second son Albert, Duke of York and his wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon , who lived here with their children, the princesses Elizabeth - now Queen Elizabeth II - and Margaret bis for the coronation of Albert to King George VI. in 1937 spent their vacation. They completely renovated the house and also had large parts of the garden rebuilt.

From 1947 it served as a summer residence for Princess Elizabeth and her husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh . After the death of his father Georg VI. it was used again by her mother from 1953. The estate is part of the private royal estate of Balmoral. Her grandson Charles, who also spent his honeymoon with his second wife Camilla here in 2005, has used it since the Queen Mother's death . In 1952, the Queen Mother acquired the Castle of Mey , further north on the coast , which she also used as a summer residence and left a trust; It is now also inhabited by Prince Charles once a year.

The building

Built in 1715, numerous additions and alterations were made in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today Birkhall appears as an L-shaped building complex in a rural style with a cream-white facade and roofs covered with slate . The wing facing the valley is red and shaped, plus a round stair tower with a helmet roof. At the driveway there is a small guard pavilion with a roof also covered with slate.

The garden

Until the end of the 1950s, the garden consisted of a large lawn. Plans drawn up as early as the 1930s were only implemented by Queen Elisabeth, the Queen Mother, from the 1960s and continued by her grandson Charles - taking into account the not always easy climatic conditions. Today the garden with hedges, flower trellises and lush beds is embedded in the surrounding forest. Also in the garden is a thatched, round, Celtic style playhouse that was built in the 1930s for Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. At the end of the property, an iron suspension bridge built in 1880 spans the River Muick.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Cairngorms National Park Authority: Place-Names of the Cairngorms National Park
2. ^ The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall official website: Birkhall
3. ^ William Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother: The Official Biography. London, Macmillan, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4050-4859-0
4. ^ Birkhall Hunting Lodge: Honeymoon in Scotland. In: Der Stern, April 10, 2005.

Web links

• The Prince of Wales Guest Editor: Birkhall, Balmoral Estate, Aberdeenshire. In: Country Life, November 14, 2013.

Coordinates: 57 ° 1 ′ 43.8 "  N , 3 ° 4 ′ 26.8"  W.