In keeping with royal tradition, King Charles and Queen Camilla are expected to spend some of their summer in Scotland, but their choice of residence expands far beyond the expected Balmoral Castle.
While Balmoral was favored by Queen Elizabeth, the King may choose to reside in one of his lesser-known royal residences – many of which served as the backdrop to family vacations over the years. Among them is Inchnabobart – a secluded hunting cottage on the Balmoral estate that is notably more modest than its famous counterpart.
Unlike Balmoral Castle, Inchnabobart resembles a traditional Scottish hunting lodge – complete with a stone façade, a cottage kitchen, and an old fireplace. Prince Harry revealed intricate details of Inchnabobart (and its surroundings) in his memoir, Spare below.
Inchnabobart
'We came to the last wooden bridge, the tires making that soothing lullaby I always associated with Scotland. Da dong, da dong...da dong, da dong. Just below us, a burn seethed after recent heavy rain up top. The air was thick with midges. Through the trees, in the last moments of daylight, we could faintly make out huge stags peering at us,' Prince Harry begins.
'Now we arrived in a great clearing, an old stone hunting lodge to the right, the cold stream running down to the river through the wood on our left, and there she was. Inchnabobart!'
Continuing in Spare, Harry expands on the lodge's interiors, noting how the property boasts a 'warm kitchen' and an 'old fireplace.'
'I fell onto the fender, with its worn red cushion, and inhaled the smell of that huge pyramid of silver birch firewood stacked beside it,' he says. 'If there’s a smell more intoxicating or inviting than silver birch, I don’t know what it could be. Grandpa, who’d set off half an hour before us, was already tending his grill at the back of the lodge.'
More information, and rare photos, are available via Canmore, a Scottish database of information on over 320,000 archaeological sites. Notes on its architecture say that the 'small complex' comprises a main two-story building and an outhouse 'used as a shooting lodge.' The site was also recorded as part of the Listed Buildings Recording Programme (LBRP) in 2001.
It is unknown whether King Charles and his family will spend time in Inchnabobart during his visit to the Highlands; however, we would imagine that the monarch holds similar memories and associations with the cottage.
We can also pick up a copy of Spare by Prince Harry via Amazon below.
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