As summer officially arrives and schools close their doors, royal parents the Prince and Princess of Wales are likely planning how to spend the warm summer months with their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
While their holiday home, Anmer Hall in Norfolk, offers a familiar retreat from their usual home in Windsor, there’s another forgotten gem further afield that promises privacy and a taste of “ordinary” life, just like Prince William’s grandparents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
Craigowan Lodge is a seven-bedroom cottage on the sprawling 50,000-acre Balmoral estate and is steeped in royal history. It’s a place where King Charles spent summers with his late ex-wife, Princess Diana, and where a young Prince William forged cherished childhood memories.
Craigowan Lodge
© Getty ImagesCraigowan Lodge is located on the Balmoral estate
In the summer, King Charles follows a tradition set by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and spends time in Scotland. Balmoral Castle, first purchased by Prince Albert for Queen Victoria in 1852, was the late monarch’s chosen retreat, set amid mountains, lochs and glens.
Before the castle closed to the public and was ready for her extended stay, Queen Elizabeth would spend the first couple of weeks of her summer holiday at Craigowan Lodge. Will William make use of the smaller property?
© GettyThe Prince and Princess of Wales’ kids are ready for the summer holidays
With a reported seven bedrooms, the house offers ample space for William, Kate, and their three children. And it would not be the first time that William has visited. As a child, he accompanied his younger brother, Prince Harry, and parents, then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana, on several summer trips to Aberdeenshire.
Private cottage
© GettyBalmoral Castle was where the late Queen loved to spend her summer holidays
According to royal expert Wesley Kerr, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were fond of Craigowan Lodge because it allowed them to live a fairly “ordinary” life without “grandeur.”
“I don’t imagine that she’s doing the cooking or anything, but she and the Duke are able to be there as an ordinary married couple without the grandeur,” he said on the Channel 5 documentary, Secrets of the Royal Palaces.
© GettyWilliam and Kate often visit Balmoral
“I think the Queen sees the grandeur in these amazing houses as, sort of, part of the job. But the Queen, like anybody else, can only be in one room at a time. So one room in a small house is probably a rather nice change.”
The scaled-back residence would therefore be more of a home from home for William and Kate should they choose to visit, and allow them a mini retreat while still being able to visit the King and enjoy the Highlands.
Royal history
Princess Diana and Prince Charles pictured at Balmoral in 1981Charles and Diana’s first official photocall following their engagement news took place at Craigowan Lodge, where they perched on a white bench in relaxed waterproof boots and cosy knit jumpers.
Elizabeth and Philip enjoyed spending time with their grandchildren at the Balmoral estate, where the Making of a Royal Romance author Katie Nicholls said William and Harry could “let off steam” and learn how to salmon fish.
She added that Queen Elizabeth found it “very quiet” when her grandchildren weren’t in the main castle.She added: “When Princess Anne and her children Zara and Peter came to visit, which was at least twice a year, they always stayed in the main house, but Diana was different, and now that they had left, the house was suddenly terribly quiet.
“‘The Queen was so upset when Diana and the boys moved to the lodge,’ recalled her cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson. She said, ‘Why did they have to move? There are so many corridors for them to race down here and it’s so quiet now they have gone.'”
Prince William and Prince Harry liked to “blow off steam” at the Scottish estate in their childhoodPrince William confirmed his antics with his cousins in The Queen at 90, admitting he was playing with Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall on a go-kart, which ultimately ended up crashing into a lamppost and getting them in trouble.
Prince William said: “I remember my grandmother being the first person out at Balmoral to come running across the lawn in her kilt. She came charging over and gave us the most almighty telling off, and that sort of stuck in my mind from that moment on.”
The cottage was also where the late monarch chose to mourn her husband, Prince Philip, following his death in April 2021.