For Queen Elizabeth II, the Balmoral estate was a place to ‘be normal’

LONDON –

When the hearse carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s body pulled out of the gates of Balmoral Castle on Sunday, it marked the monarch’s final departure from a personal sanctuary where she was able to remove the straitjacket of protocol and ceremony for a few weeks each year .

The sprawling estate in the Scottish Highlands west of Aberdeen was a place where Elizabeth rode her beloved horses, picnicked and pushed her children around the grounds on tricycles and wagons, putting aside the formality of Buckingham Palace.

“If … she goes through those (Balmoral) gates, I think the royal part of her stays mostly outside,” said Rev. David Barr of Glenmuick Church in nearby Ballater. “And when she went in, she could be a wife, a loving wife, a loving mother, a loving grandma, and later a loving great-grandmother — and aunt — and be normal.”

It was a transformation that took place each summer when the royal family spent much of August and September at the estate, which had been a royal retreat since 1852 when Prince Albert bought it for his wife, Queen Victoria.

Balmoral is the family’s “private wilderness” where a fleet of pristine Land Rovers collected guests every morning during shooting and hunting season, wrote Jonathan Dimbleby in his 1994 biography of Prince Charles, who became King Charles III after the death of his mother.

But there were other attractions as well.

“In the stables the Queen’s horses were ready again, cloaks tended, saddles and bridles soaped and stirrups polished,” wrote Dimbleby. “The domestic workers, trained in discretion, appeared only when necessary, knowing that to be seen or heard in vain would mean intrusion.”

At Balmoral, a woman most remembered for being dressed in robes and crowns, or grandmotherly gowns and wide-brimmed hats, could tie a shawl around her head, snuggle into a warm jacket, and slip on a pair of boots to have one with Heather covered domain to explore pine forests and populated by deer, bees and butterflies.

This sense of informality might bring out the queen’s mischievous side.

A former royal protection officer, Richard Griffin, recalled accompanying the Queen on a picnic when they met two American hikers. The tourists didn’t recognize Elizabeth and asked how long she had been in the area. When she replied “over 80 years old,” they asked if she had ever met the Queen.

“In a flash she’s like, ‘Well I haven’t, but Dickie here sees her regularly,'” Griffin told Sky News earlier this year during events marking the monarch’s 70th jubilee.

One of the walkers then turned to Griffin and asked how the queen was. He replied, “She can be very argumentative at times, but she has a wonderful sense of humor.”

After posing for a photo with the queen, the unsuspecting hikers waved goodbye and they continued on their trek.

“And then Her Majesty said to me, ‘I’d like to be a fly on the wall when he shows these photos to friends in America. Hopefully someone will tell him who I am,” Griffin recalled.

The Queen’s love for Balmoral underscored the royal family’s close connection to Scotland, beginning with her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who started the royal tradition of wearing the tartan.

During the 2014 referendum on Scotland’s independence, the Queen was said to have hoped for a ‘no’ vote, although she was unable to publicly express her opinion. Former Prime Minister David Cameron later confirmed this, recounting how her husband, the late Prince Philip, attempted to keep the peace on Balmoral by trying to cover up the morning newspapers on the day a poll was published in which it has been suggested that Scots could vote to leave the United Kingdom

“But of course when she got the result he said she purred like a cat with satisfaction at hearing her UK would remain united,” royal historian Robert Lacey told the BBC on Friday.

But at its core, Balmoral was a family home for the Queen.

Temporarily relieved of the affairs of state, Elizabeth and Philip spent more time with their children at Balmoral.

Home videos shared with the BBC for a documentary about the Queen’s 90th birthday showed the couple playing with Charles and his sister Anne on the lawn outside Balmoral Castle, while Philip hurtled down a grassy slope on a small red wagon, before he toppled kilt flies in the wind.

In later years, Charles played table tennis and football in the courtyard and was even allowed to cycle alone to the village shop, albeit with a policeman in tow, Dimbleby wrote.

It was “very significant” that the Queen died in Scotland, Lacey told The Associated Press.

“Because aside from her love for this particular country, it was the scenery, the way she brought her in touch with nature,” he said.