Queen Elizabeth’s Former Aide Reveals What Monarch Did Every Night When She Slept at Balmoral After Being ‘Caged’ at Buckingham Palace
Each year, members of the royal family leave their city home bases behind and embark on their summer holiday in the countryside of Scotland. Now, someone who used to work for Queen Elizabeth II and made the annual trip with her is discussing what being in Aberdeen did for the late monarch and revealing the one thing she never ever did at night while she stayed at Balmoral Castle.
Former employee says Balmoral was a ‘release’ after being ‘caged’ at Buckingham Palace
Many royal fans know that Paul Burrell was Princess Diana’s butler from 1987 until her death in 1997. However, he began working for the royal family when he was 18 years old and served as one of Queen Elizabeth’s personal footmen for a time.
Speaking on behalf of Slingo, Burrell reflected on his time working for the queen and said he believes that being in Scotland has always been a “release” for the royals after being “caged” for much of the year at their London residences.
He said: “We always knew that once the garden parties were over at Buckingham Palace and in my day once the queen had spent her usual week at the Palace of Holyrood House in Scotland, which a lot of people don’t realize was her official residence in Scotland. As Queen of Scotland, she had to spend a week there as queen. So once that was out of the way and Wimbledon was out of the way that signaled then the beginning of the summer.
“For me, what started the summer holidays was a cruise on the Royal Britannia around Land’s End, up the Irish Sea, around the Western Isles of Scotland, and into Aberdeen to take the queen and the royal family to Balmoral for their summer holidays. Sadly that no longer happens.”
The former royal employee continued: “They were the golden days when we just sailed around the British Isles into Scotland to go to Balmoral. Now, of course, things are very different. Things are evolving and moving on as they should and the king will be going on his summer holidays. He adores Scotland … I think Scotland, what it does for the royal family, it releases them because Scotland is so big and beautiful and open, they’ve been caged for the year and now they can be released.”
Ex-aide reveals what Queen Elizabeth never did at night while staying at Balmoral
Burrell also revealed that the late queen “never closed her bedroom windows” at Balmoral. Instead, she slept with them open every single night for one reason.
“She died in a home which she loved, a home which had barely been touched since Queen Victoria lived there 100 years earlier and she loved that frugal way of life,” Burrell explained. “She loved the fact that her bedroom windows were open every night so she would get the fresh air from the highlands every night.”
He added: “From August until early October, she never closed her bedroom windows. She slept in her bed and it was almost like the Princess and the Pea, there were that many sheets and blankets and covers and eiderdowns that it was hard to find her, because sometimes that bedroom was very very cold, especially in October in Aberdeenshire.”
