Balmoral Castle: National Architecture in a European Context

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) and Prince Albert (1819-61) first visited Scotland in 1842 when they were both twenty-three years old. What began as a puppy love turned into a life-long affection for the country its landscape and its architecture. Their passion culminated in 1852-56, when they had their holiday home, Balmoral Castle, built in the remote hills near Aberdeen, following a design by the Aberdonian architects John Smith (1781-1852) and his son William (1817-91). This article will analyse Balmoral Castle as an example of what we will call ‘built unionism’, that is, a building that promoted the royal couple's agenda of underlining the union between England and Scotland and the strength of the British nation. At the same time, we will show how this building communicated ideas about national revival that, at the time, were also developing in many other European countries, and particularly in Germany.