👑 A land of Queens and Kings

We finally visited the Balmoral Estate in the Scottish Highlands

Hello fellow Scotland lovers,

We are right back into it with some great new Scottish content coming your way, starting with a trip to the land of Queens and Kings… the Balmoral Estate in Aberdeenshire.

Visiting the Royal Residence in the Scottish Highlands

And in this post, I have two new videos to share with you: the fist of which is already live on the Dreaming of Scotland YouTube channel, and the second is available to members of this newsletter as an early access benefit. See below!

You may wonder why I write ‘Queens and Kings’ rather than the other way around, and that’s because Balmoral is definitely most associated with the Queens who owned the place, rather than Kings. Notably, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away in 2022 while staying at Balmoral Castle, which was her favourite home.

Staying at Balmoral

To kick things off, I wanted to share a fantastic experience we had staying at the Balmoral Arms in the town of Ballater in Aberdeenshire. Ballater is a place that was well known to Queen Elizabeth, and she was often seen wandering the local shops, speaking to locals, and even praying in the local church.

We stayed in the Balmoral Arms’ fantastic River Dee suite, which as I explain in the review on the Dreaming of Scotland blog, was really REALLY nice, while dinner in the 1852 restaurant was one of the finest meals I’ve had in my entire life.

While doing Scottish hotel reviews, the Crerar Group of hotels has consistently provided some of my best experiences, and I’m excited to share these with you as you consider places to stay during your own Scottish adventures.

Watch my review below:

Visiting the Balmoral Castle and Estate

It can be very hard to plan ahead while considering visits to Balmoral Castle, because it is a royal residence and, as such, is often closed to the public. Your best bet for active opening times and restrictions is to visit this page on their website.

On the day we visited, King Charles had literally vacated the day before, so it had only just re-opened following weeks of closure.

We were able to walk around the stunning grounds of the castle, but not enter in the castle itself.

The video below will be made public over the coming weeks, but I am sharing it with you now as a member of this newsletter:

Thank you for joining me on this Dreaming of Scotland journey. I am so happy and proud to be sharing more of Scotland with you right here on these pages.

I’d hugely appreciate if you’d share it with your friends and family who may also enjoy Scotland, or post it on Facebook groups about Scotland you may be a part of.

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Thanks again and speak soon,

Shaun