How Prince Harry Described the Royals' Summer Vacation Spot in 'Spare'

Balmoral Castle has been one of the British royal family's favorite homes since it was first acquired by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1852. The Scottish highland setting for the picturesque residence has seen generations of royals flock there to spend part of their summer vacation.

Queen Elizabeth II loved Balmoral so much it was said to have been her favorite home. It was there that she died in September at the age of 96. The love of Balmoral was inherited by her son, King Charles III, who will reportedly keep up the royal tradition of inviting extended family members to spend part of the summer at the castle when it is closed to visitors at the end of August.

In his memoir, Spare, which was published in January, Prince Harry revealed that it was one of the places he has been the happiest in his life. He also told readers how it became the site of one of the most catastrophic moments in his childhood as well as the setting for one of his most impactful final farewells.

Here, Newsweek looks at key moments from Prince Harry's record-breaking memoir describing moments at the royals' Balmoral summer home.

Castle Steeped in Family Legend

The opening chapter of Prince Harry's Spare begins with a description of the important place Balmoral Castle has in the heart of royal family life.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert spent several vacations in the Scottish highlands during the early years of their marriage, with the landscape said to remind the prince of his homeland of Coburg in Germany.

After staying at rented homes, the couple purchased the Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, in 1852, and Albert set about designing a new castle on the site to replace an older building in order to accommodate their growing family.

When Albert died in 1862, Victoria retreated to the homes she shared with the prince, Balmoral being a principal among them.

"There were always stories. People would whisper now and then about folks who hadn't fared well at Balmoral," Harry wrote in Spare. "The long-ago Queen, for instance. Mad with grief, she'd locked herself inside Balmoral Castle and vowed never to come out. And the very proper former prime minister (Tony Blair): he'd called the place 'surreal' and 'utterly freaky.'"

Simply Paradise

Despite the ominous stories that surrounded Balmoral's history, Harry wrote that he considered the castle and its vast acreage of land "simply paradise."

He described it as "a cross between Disney World and some sacred Druid grove," recalling how he would spend a regular summer vacation at the castle with his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The prince gave a lengthy description of the castle's interiors, recounting how he would bow to a statue of Queen Victoria in the hall and how one of the residence's 50 bedrooms had been divided for his use with his brother, Prince William.

"Willy had the larger half, with a double bed, a good-sized basin, a cupboard with mirrored doors, a beautiful window looking down on the courtyard, the fountain, the bronze statue of a roe deer buck," Harry wrote.

"My half of the room was far smaller, less luxurious. I never asked why. I didn't care. But I also didn't need to ask. Two years older than me, Willy was the Heir, whereas I was the Spare."

Despite this, Harry told readers that the castle was a happy place for him in his early childhood.

"What I'm trying to say is, I was happy there," he wrote. "In fact, it's possible that I was never happier than that one golden summer day at Balmoral: August 30, 1997"—the day before his mother, Prince Diana's death.

Scene of Tragedy

Perhaps one of the most impactful events that happened during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II while she was in residence with her family at Balmoral was the death of Diana.

The princess died in the early hours of August 31, 1997, from injuries she'd sustained during a high-speed Paris car crash while evading the paparazzi with boyfriend Dodi Fayed.

William and Harry were staying at Balmoral with their father and grandmother at the time of the accident. The world's attention turned to the castle as pressure mounted for the royals to join mourners in London.

One of the most impactful sections of Spare contains Harry's description of being told his mother had died when he was just 12 years old.

The prince wrote that his father woke him in the morning after learning about the crash: "standing at the edge of the bed, looking down. His white dressing-gown made him seem like a ghost in a play."

On waking, Harry wrote that Charles "sat down on the edge of the bed" and told him gently: "Darling boy, Mummy's been in a car crash."

After asking whether she was alright, the young prince was then told: "I'm afraid she didn't make it."

After the crash, Queen Elizabeth and Charles remained with the young princes at Balmoral, away from the press and public, for five days until they made the journey back to London for the funeral.

Final Farewell

In the epilogue of Spare, Harry writes of his experience with the death of a second loved family member at the castle—Queen Elizabeth.

In September, Harry had been staying in Britain to attend charity events with wife, Meghan Markle, when the queen died at her Scottish home. The prince flew up to see her at Balmoral upon hearing the news. When he arrived she had already passed and he wrote of the emotionally charged scene he found waiting for him.

"[Princess Anne] led me upstairs, to Granny's bedroom. I braced myself, went in," he wrote. "The room was dimly lit, unfamiliar—I'd been inside it only once in my life. I moved ahead uncertainly, and there she was. I stood, frozen, staring. I stared and stared.

"It was difficult, but I kept on, thinking how I'd regretted not seeing my mother at the end. Years of lamenting that lack of proof, postponing my grief for want of proof. Now I thought: Proof. Careful what you wish for."

After spending some time alone with his late grandmother, the prince wrote that he then "went back along the corridor, across the tartan carpet, past the statue of Queen Victoria," and rang his wife.

Harry has not returned to Balmoral publicly since his last visit with the queen. It is possible that the prince and his family could join King Charles at the castle this summer, however, with public tensions with the wider royals still reportedly fraught some commentators believe this to be unlikely.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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