Surrounded by dense forest, lush farmland and windswept
Highland rock and heather, it has long been a much-loved oasis of dazzling
colours and calm.
The late Queen Mother adored the ‘hermit’ qualities of
this haven in the hills near Balmoral, much of which she designed herself.Her dutiful grandson, the Prince of Wales, has not only
maintained it in her memory but expanded it with an expert eye.
So he, of all people, will have been dismayed to see a
large part of the gardens of Birkhall, his home on Royal Deeside, washed away by
the latest winter storms.
Here is — or was — a celebrated garden built around the
River Muick which flows through the grounds on its way to join the mighty Dee a
mile to the north-east. ‘The river is the magic,’ the Prince observed just over
two years ago in a portrait of his Birkhall garden in Country Life magazine.
And yet it is that same river which, in recent days, has
become a bulldozer, obliterating years of work on the garden, not to mention a
19th-century suspension bridge among other much-loved features.
It remains to be seen what has happened to the riverside
log cabin built for the Queen Mother as an 80th birthday present — and which
she called ‘The Old Bull and Bush’.
The main house — with a famous collection of Spy
cartoons, its special hatch for hungry red squirrels and a downstairs loo named
‘Arthur’s Seat’ after a favourite member of the Queen Mother’s household — is
on high ground and untouched by the floods.
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