The Wales children have a touching relationship with their great-grandmother
The late Queen had the sweetest bond with Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and little Prince Louis – and they have a special way to stay connected to their great-grandmother following her death in September 2022.
Hidden away on King Charles’ Scottish estate, Birkhall, is a heather-thatched Wendy house originally built for then-Princesses Elizabeth and Princess Margaret , and which is now enjoyed by William and Kate’s three children. It features a wooden exterior and a rounded roof with a small turret at the top. A pale green picket fence separates the woodland forest around the Wendy house and the manicured lawns leading up to the house.
The young Elizabeth and Margaret spent many happy holidays here until their father’s accession when the King and Queen started to occupy neighbouring Balmoral. Subsequently, Princess Elizabeth, her husband Prince Philip and their own children would stay at Birkhall during the late summer months. Following George VI’s death in 1952, the Queen Mother once again began to use Birkhall as a summer residence. She had the house enlarged and transformed the gardens. Following her death in 2002, Birkhall passed to her grandson, Charles.
Queen Camilla seen inside the wendy house at Birkhall ( Image: PA)
He loves the residence so much that he and Camilla spent their honeymoon there in 2005. It was also where they retreated In March 2020 when Charles tested positive for Covid. Speaking about the garden, Charles previously told Alan Titchmarsh : “It is such a special place, particularly because it was made by my grandmother. It is a childhood garden, and all I’ve done, really, is enhance it a bit.”
King Charles and Queen Camilla previously gave unprecedented access inside its grounds in the BBC documentary King Charles III: The Coronation Year. The royal couple were spotted walking around the 52,000-acre grounds of the Birkhall estate in Scotland with their Jack Russell Terrier, Beth. At the heart of the garden is the River Muick, with a wire bridge crossing the waters. “Every child when they come here rush there and bounce about on the bridge for hours.”
According to Country Life, the garden at Birkhall “demonstrates to perfection” the King’s “beliefs, his love of gardens, of wildlife and the countryside and, equally important, of Scotland”. “It is a treasured family sanctuary that’s replete with fond memories, but it’s also a stepping stone for future generations of royal children-and grandchildren – who will come to love and cherish it as much as its current custodian.”
