Balmoral, a Cherished Royal Getaway in Scotland, Becomes a Place of Pilgrimage

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BALMORAL CASTLE, Scotland — By 7:30 on Wednesday morning, the flowers already lined the walls outside Balmoral Castle, the beautiful and remote Scottish country estate much loved by Queen Elizabeth II, and where her life and seven-decade reign ended on Thursday.

A candle flickered, too — fighting a losing battle against the relentless rain — as Erin Harkness added her bouquet. She reflected on the sense of loss that persuaded her to get into her car at 1 a.m. and drive from Dundee, 60 miles away, stopping for a few hours en route to doze while in a parking lot.

“It’s strange. It’s going to take a moment or two for the brain to cope, because it feels like any other day but there is that difference” said Ms. Harkness, 24, who cares for her disabled mother and volunteers for the National Trust for Scotland, which protects the country’s countryside and historic buildings. “You know that she’s gone now and that there is a hole in the nation, a Queen Elizabeth II shaped hole.”

As the rain pelted down in the early morning, Ms. Harkness was one of many who defied the elements to pay their respects to the queen. They were joined by television crews from around the world, sheltered under umbrellas as they awaited the departure of members of the royal family who had rushed to Balmoral on Thursday as the queen’s health deteriorated. Prince Harry was one of the first to leave, around 8:30 a.m.

By late morning, in the nearby town of Ballater, more people had gathered to be taken by bus to Balmoral, which has long been a focal point of royal life.

In the 19th century, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert made Balmoral Castle their Scottish home. And since then, the castle has been a base for the royal family’s summer vacations, a place for walks and secluded picnics.

The Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, and Diana, the Princess of Wales, spent their honeymoon at Balmoral. By tradition, prime ministers are invited by the monarch for a brief stay at the castle each year, a visit enjoyed more by some than by others.

Balmoral featured prominently as a backdrop in television’s “The Crown” and the movie “The Queen,” which focuses on the aftermath of the death of Diana in 1997.

Even with gray clouds hovering there is no doubting the beauty of the spectacular countryside, which is bisected by the River Dee, in full, roaring flow. By several accounts, Queen Elizabeth, a lifelong lover of horses, dogs and country pursuits, was probably happier in Balmoral than anywhere else, occasionally even enjoying a little anonymity.

On one occasion, two American tourists, who knew the castle was close by, approached her and a protection officer, Richard Griffin, on a walk. They failed to recognize her, and asked if she had met the queen.

“‘I haven’t, but Dick here meets her regularly,’ ” the queen replied, according to an account by Mr. Griffin in interviews earlier this year.

On Friday, Iris Stevenson, 70, a retired office manager from Belfast in Northern Ireland, also told of a chance encounter with the queen. She said she and her husband were walking close to nearby Loch Muick two years ago, and stood aside from a single track road when a Range Rover SUV approached.

“We stood to let it pass, and it was the queen driving and she just raised her hand to thank us,” said Ms. Stevenson, who vacations regularly in the area and had come to pay her respects on Friday.

“I think she was a wonderful person,” she said. “She held her family together for so long — and the whole nation — and to work up to your last at 96 years of age is amazing.”

“You can say she worked until the day she died,” she added, referring to the fact that only on Tuesday the queen had appointed a new prime minister, Liz Truss.

On Friday, Queen Elizabeth’s love of Scotland was reciprocated in some of the tributes left with bouquets of flowers, one of which quoted the words of the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns:

“My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,

My heart’s in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;

Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,

My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,

The birthplace of Valor, the country of Worth”

Shona Leonard, from Westhill, Aberdeenshire, also paying respect to the queen, pointed to her powers as a unifying force as well as one of stability and consistency.

“She had a Scottish mum and an English dad,” she said, referring to the fact that the queen’s mother was descended from the Royal House of Scotland. “She knew the locals and she really loved this place,” added Ms. Leonard who, failing to find any flowers in the local store, brought a potted plant instead. “It’s incredible what she’s done, how she’s held the country together.”

Some English visitors, too, agreed that Balmoral was an appropriate place for Queen Elizabeth’s long reign to conclude. They included David Blenkiron, a sales representative from Durham in northeast England, who was on a work assignment in Scotland when the queen died. On Friday, he grabbed the only flowers he could find at a local supermarket at 6 a.m., and drove more than an hour to Balmoral.

“She’s always been there so it just felt the right thing to do,” said Mr. Blenkiron, 49. He said he remembered the street party he attended as a child during the 1977 Jubilee celebrations, and still had a ceremonial coin and beaker produced to mark the occasion.

“She’s been the queen all my life,” he said. “I’ve known nothing else,”

He acknowledged that the passing of the crown to King Charles will be an adjustment. “Every note in my pocket, every coin in my pocket, has her head on” he said referring to the national currency. As for the chorus of the national anthem, changed from “God save the Queen” to “God save the King,” Mr. Blenkiron predicted: “We will be singing the wrong words for quite a few years.”

Still, he added with a touch of emotion in his voice as he stood in the teeming rain: “If she had to go, this was the place. She loved it.”



Source : Nytimes