This is the story of a British lady and her German husband. Let me take you back to a September day in the year 1848. Immediately after lunch, Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert (better known as the Prince Consort) went for a walk on a wooded hill in the Scottish Highlands, revelling in the solitude and the pure mountain air. The next day, the Royal couple mounted on ponies and attended by Highland gillies, picnicked on Lochnagar. The legend of Balmoral, the dream of a Highland home for the Royal family away from the hustle and bustle of London, had begun.

Even in those early days. Albert was dreaming of a new remodelled Balmoral. He made rough sketches of its granite towerws as he sat by the open window of the (and I quote) "little old house" on the Balmoral estate that beloinged to Sir Robert Gordon......

To continue this story read further in December 2007's Scotian.