Located in Gloucestershire, England, Highgrove House used to be a family home of King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consol. Built in the late 1700s as a rectangular, detached three-story building of ashlar blocks (finely dressed stone), this royal mansion includes four reception rooms, nine bedrooms, a full wing for staff accommodation, and even a nursery wing.
The house underwent a remodeling in 1987 to reflect King Charles’s environmental values and beliefs. Some of these impressive additions include solar panels, a wood-chip boiler for heating, and a natural sewer system that filters waste. The property has vast and majestic gardens which attract thirty thousand visitors a year.
Wren House, Nottingham Palace, Ivy Cottage
All situated on the grounds of Kensington Palace, Ivy Cottage, Wren House, and Nottingham Palace have had their fair share of royal live-ins. Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank moved into the Ivy Cottage after their wedding in 2018, while Prince Harry and Meghan moved in next door, in the Ivy Cottage, in 2019 - it was where Harry proposed.
Plenty of other royals have called these properties home, including Robert Fellows and Lady Jane Fellowes, sister of the late Princess Diana. There’s nothing like living near family, especially if your family is so well-known.
The Palace of Holyroodhouse
It sounds like something just outside of Los Angeles, but The Palace of Holyroodhouse got its start in Edinburgh all the way back in 1128 as an Augustinian Monastery and is named after an antiquated name for the Cross of Jesus, the Rood. This Scottish palace has been an official royal residence since the 16th century, hosting various members of the royal family when they make trips to the region.
The palace is open to the public year-round but will close to serve the royal family if a visit is necessary. Queen Elizabeth II used to spend one week a year at Holyroodhouse (known as Holyrood week), throwing a lavish garden party, sometimes boasting up to eight thousand Scottish guests from all walks of life.
Sandringham Palace
Sprawling over twenty thousand acres of land, Sandringham House held a special place in Queen Elizabeth’s heart. It came to her from her father, King George VI, who inherited it from his father, King George V. King George V said of the home: “Dear old Sandringham, the place I love better than anywhere else in the world.”
In 1957, on the 25th anniversary of her grandfather’s famous radio Christmas message, Queen Elizabeth gave her very first televised Christmas message from Sandringham, saying “I wish you all, young and old, wherever you may be, all the fun and enjoyment and the peace of a very happy Christmas.” The house includes six hundred acres of gardens, is worth sixty-five million dollars, and is open to the public year-round.
Drottningholm Palace
While the Stockholm Palace is the official state residence, the Drottningholm Palace is the private residence of the Swedish royal family, located in Drottningholm. Built on the island Lovön in the 16th century, it served as the regular summer residence for the royal court for most of the 18th century. It is also a popular tourist attraction.
The palace has gone through numerous renovations, and now include a church, completed in 1746, a theater where the Royal Swedish Opera has performed, and a Chinese pavilion built during the years 1763-1770. It also has a garden, which includes both an extensive manicured baroque garden, and a more natural, English garden with ponds, canals, bridges, large lawns and hundreds of trees.