The only home she owned in her own right, Queen Elizabeth purchased the Castle of Mey for £100 after the death of her husband, King George VI, in 1952 and spent three weeks there every year following.
Now holiday-makers can enjoy the same seclusion for the princely sum of £50,000 for a long weekend stay.
Described as “five-star-plus” service, with a butler, top chefs, salmon fishing and deer stalking, the castle is located in a treeless, almost barren, part of Britain at the very northern tip of Scotland with views over the Pentland Firth.
Guests can inhabit most of the castle’s 37 rooms with one notable exception – the Queen Mother’s bedroom.
Right, a watercolour of the castle by Prince Charles, who stays for around 10 days every August.
In a candid letter to her treasurer, Queen Elizabeth asked if he thought she was “mad” for buying it.
“It might be rather fun to have a small house so far away – the air is lovely, and one looks at Orkney from the drawing room!” she wrote, reported in Express UK.
“The only sad thing is that part of the roof was blown off in the great gale last January and I shall have to put in electric light of course.
“The grid runs past the door luckily.
“Do you think me mad?”
The Castle of Mey, as shown on its website.
Apparently Elizabeth loved to walk down to the beach to collect shells which she would wash and arrange decoratively on trays, lamp stands or picture frames. A tray of her shells is still in the entrance hall to the left of the grand staircase.
