Although he spent two decades as a senior gardener at Highgrove House, Jack Stooks traveled to other royal residences with King Charles, and he shares that there’s one destination “that gives you an overwhelming feeling of coming home.” Tucked away in the Scottish Highlands, the Balmoral estate has been a special retreat for the Royal Family since Queen Victoria’s day, and it has allowed Queen Elizabeth’s children and the generations after to experience true peace and privacy.
Speaking on behalf of Smooth Spins Casino, Stooks shares that for King Charles, Balmoral allows him to “switch off, even if only for a little while.” The former gardener—who even accompanied The King and Queen on their 2005 honeymoon to Birkhall, Charles’s house on the Balmoral estate—adds that The King spent his childhood fishing alongside the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth in Scotland, and the sport “has always been a much-loved tradition for the family.”
Balmoral as a whole has been an “incredibly special” place to the royals, and Stooks says that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip felt “it was where the whole family could simply be themselves.”
Growing up at Buckingham Palace, King Charles, Princess Anne, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Prince Edward had few opportunities to roam freely, except when they were at Balmoral. “When the children were young, they spent their days running around the hills, splashing in streams, chasing cows, having picnics, walking the ponies and taking out the dogs,” Stooks says.
“It was one place where they could enjoy a normal childhood away from public view,” he adds.
For Prince William, Prince Harry, and their cousins, the same rings true, and the young royals spent many happy summers with their parents and grandparents exploring the Scottish estate.
Although the infamous “Balmoral Test” often gives newcomers a sense of anxiety, Stooks says the atmosphere is “very relaxed” at Birkhall.
“From my experience working there, I mainly knew what happened when The King stayed at Birkhall, the former home of the Queen Mother on the Balmoral estate,” Stooks shares. “Prince William and Prince Harry always loved being there, and so did Catherine.”
When guests came to stay, they’d “spend their time walking along the river and through the estate, popping into the village of Ballater, and simply enjoying being together,” Stooks says, adding, “It was never about grand entertainment.”
