Sunday 6 June 2004
A Guide to Royal Britain
Last month I
discussed royal sites around London. This month we will be visiting other parts of
Britain. We will start with Windsor Castle, possibly the most important place in
the realm for the monarchy. The Windsor Castle pages on the royal web site are at http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page557.asp,
and this month the feature article in the online royal magazine, Royal Insight, is on
Windsor Castle at http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page1729.asp.
William the Conqueror built the castle to protect the western approach to London and it
has been continuously inhabited for over 900 years. George IV had the architect Sir
Geoffrey Wyatt rebuild Windsor for him in the early nineteenth century, and it has been
one of the most important royal residences ever since. The Queen spends her weekends
there when she is in residence at Buckingham Palace.
Naturally,
there is a great deal to see at Windsor Castle. Besides
the State Apartments and other features of the castle, there is Queen Mary’s
Dolls’ House, a detailed miniature house created by the Queen’s grandmother. More importantly, there is St. George’s Chapel
(http://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/),
the home of the Order of the Garter and burial place of ten sovereigns. In recent years Prince Edward was married and the
Queen Mother and Princess Margaret buried there. Near
the castle is Frogmore House, a home of various royal relations from the eighteenth
century on, and its mausoleum, where Victoria and Albert are buried (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page558.asp). It is open only for a few days each year in May
and August. A new attraction at Windsor is the
Windsor Farm Shop (http://www.windsorfarmshop.co.uk),
which sells meat and produce from the royal estates and also has a coffee shop.
The
other royal residences outside London are Balmoral and Sandringham. Because both are the monarch’s personal
property, they tend to be more commercialized than the royal palaces, and both produce
game and other farm products. Balmoral Castle
is the royal retreat in the highlands of Scotland. The
grounds and an exhibit in the castle ballroom are open to the public from April through
July. Balmoral has its own web site at www.balmoralcastle.com, which has
information for visitors on cottage rentals and outdoor activities on the estate and an
online gift shop. Sandringham House in Norfolk
was originally Edward VII’s home as Prince of Wales, but since his reign it has
belonged to the sovereign rather than the heir. Sandringham
is open to the public from April through October, and has a museum, gift shop, and
restaurant. Many events such as antiques fairs
take place on the estate, and cottages may be rented (www.sandringhamestate.co.uk).
Lady
Diana Spencer grew up at Park House (not public) on the Sandringham estate, and as we all
know, she is buried on an island in a lake at the Spencer family seat at Althorp. Incidentally, she only lived there between age 13
and when she moved to London at 18, and she was away at boarding school or visiting her
mother for almost all of that time. But
Althorp is a remarkable stately home in its own right, the Diana museum is well done, and
Althorp is well worth a visit (www.althorp.com).
Queen
Victoria’s English vacation home was Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Prince Albert designed the house in 1848 to
resemble an Italian villa. Queen Victoria died
at Osborne in 1901, and her heir Edward VII gave Osborne to the nation. It is now owned by English Heritage (www.english-heritage.org.uk)
and open to the public. Another royal seaside
getaway is George IV’s Royal Pavilion in Brighton (www.royalpavilion.org.uk). It’s quite an experience. The flamboyant, exotic chinoiserie decor is like
nowhere else.
The
English royal court has been so firmly established in London for so long that there are
relatively few sites associated with English monarchs outside London. (There are some battle sites, which are not an
interest of mine beyond Hastings and Bosworth.) Of
course, before James I inherited the English crown in 1601, the monarchs of Scotland had
their own castles and cathedrals. The official
royal residence in Scotland is the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh (www.royal.gov.uk/output/page559.asp). It was founded as a monastery in 1128 and was a
home of Mary, Queen of Scots. Though it was
little used under the later Stuarts and Hanoverians, it was restored by George IV,
Victoria, and George V, and is now used frequently. The
new Queen’s Gallery at the palace displays exhibits from the enormous royal art
collection, currently “Dutch Paintings of the Golden Age”(www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page1990.asp). Also, the former royal yacht Britannia is now
docked in Edinburgh (www.royalyachtbritannia.co.uk). The royals said goodbye in 1997 to their floating
palace, built in the 1950s to the specifications of the Queen and Prince Phillip.
The
Castle of Mey is another royal site newly open to visitors (www.castleofmey.org.uk). The late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother restored
this castle after her husband’s death and spent part of each summer there during her
long widowhood. It is open from May to
September, except for the period in August when the Prince of Wales uses the castle. It is just about as far north as you can go in
Britain. Another Scottish castle associated
with the Queen Mother is her family’s ancestral castle, Glamis Castle (www.strathmore-estates.co.uk),
where she gave birth to the late Princess Margaret. It
is open from late March through October, and has an exhibit on the Queen Mother.
Scotland
also has its share of ancient castles and cathedrals.
Returning to Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle is the most important historic
royal site in Scotland. It includes a
twelfth-century chapel, the Great Hall from 1510, the Stone of Destiny (Stone of Scone),
and the crown jewels of Scotland, among other things.
There is also the grand Renaissance Stirling Castle, but it is currently
closed for archeological investigations. Dumfermline
Abbey is the ruins of a great medieval abbey and palace.
The abbey church still stands and is the burial place of Robert the Bruce. Historic Scotland, which is somewhat like the
National Trust but is a government agency, manages these sites and many, many others (www.historic-scotland.gov.uk).
-
Margaret Weatherford
|
The Unofficial British Royal
Family Pages
