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Balmoral Estates, Ballater AB35 5TB
You may ask yourself how can you have an accidental visit to a Royal Castle in the Highlands of Scotland, we asked ourselves the very same question.
We had read about the pyramids in the Cairngorns and managed to find a postocode foa starting point. Put te postcode into the sat-nav and off we went.
As we were getting closer and having drived through the Cairngorn National Park, we started to realise that we were close to the Balmoral estate. Then all of a suddenn we passed the gates that had been seen so much in the media in recent weeks due to the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
After parking up, we donned boots, hats, coats and gloves, and wondered up to the famous black iron gates.
There were sill plenty of floral tributes at the gates. With the attitude of you don’t ask, you don’t get we asked a member of staff if we were allowed through and she pointed us in the direction of a door through to the estate.
The paths were signposted, to Gardens and Castle.
You are free to roam around the grounds. At the top end of the estate there is one of the 11 Cairns that we tried to find.
As we were leaving the grounds, we popped into the coffee shop and the gift shop on the estate. The kids loved going to the toilet so they can tell their teachers they ‘went for a pee at Balmoral’
Overall a very surreal experience.
