For hire: The remote castle that the Queen Mother used as a hideaway

A FEW months after she was widowed Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother went to Caithness in northern Scotland to stay with one of her closest friends, Lady Doris Vyner.

queen, mother, elizabeth, scotland, lady doris vyner, royal, love, family, home, retreat, elizabeth iThe Queen Mother bought the castle for £100 [GETTY]

While walking one day, Queen Elizabeth came across a remote castle with magnificent views over the Pentland Firth.

She fell in love with it on the spot and bought it.

Twelve years after her death the trustees who run the Castle of Mey hope its royal association will entice people to pay £50,000 to stay there for a long weekend of what is described as "five-star-plus" service, with a butler, top chefs, salmon fishing and deer stalking on tap.

Then known as Barrogill Castle, it was little more than a wreck with no electricity or mains water when Queen Elizabeth bought it in 1952.

She wrote to her treasurer Sir Arthur Penn: "When I was staying up in Caithness I passed a dear little Castle down by the sea and when I visited it I discovered it was going to be sold for nothing, just the value of the lead on the roof.

"This seemed so sad that I thought I would buy it & escape there occasionally when life becomes hideous!

"The old man who has lived there a long time was very anxious to give it to me but I resisted the kind gesture and he has now offered it to me for £100!

"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!

"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?"

Sir Arthur's view of the enterprise is not known but if he did wonder whether grief had skewed his employer's judgment, no one could blame him.

However little it cost to buy, the Castle of Mey (the Queen Mother swiftly restored its original name) would cost a great deal more to repair and to maintain.

But it is also not difficult to see why she cherished it as a haven not only from "hideous" life but royal life too.

 The Queen Mother insisted on paying something for the castle which was offered to her for free [PETER JOLLY]

When I was staying up in Caithness I passed a dear little Castle down by the sea and when I visited it I discovered it was going to be sold for nothing, just the value of the lead on the roof

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

Located in a treeless landscape just six miles west of John O'Groats, it is the most northerly castle in Britain, remote in the extreme.

The bleakness can feel oppressive but to Queen Elizabeth, widowed at only 51, it represented freedom and independence for the three weeks she spent there in August every year.

It was the only home she owned in her own right.

She loved nothing better than walking the 300 yards 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.

In August 1964 she wrote to her daughter Princess Margaret: "The days go by very quietly here so there is very little to tell you.

"If one goes out exploring in the car, one usually finds some lovely view or some tremendous clifflike rocks by the sea or a dear little house which I long to buy & do up!"

Any predictions about the financial burden she was taking on proved all too accurate.

Restoration of the castle and its 30 acres of parkland (known as "policies") took two years.

Writing again to Sir Arthur on September 13, 1954, the Queen Mother thanked him for examining her accounts.

"I am so grateful for all the trouble you are taking & for the thought you have given to the many problems…

"I don't think that Mey will be very heavy - one must spread it out, and anyway I am praying for that.

"So let's hope for the best.

"Perhaps an old person will leave me a million, what fun we'd have!"

In 1956 the Queen Mother insisted the government deal with the water seeping through the castle walls.

Minister for Works Baron Patrick Buchan-Hepburn recorded that he had to organise repairs after her equerry had telephoned him "to say water was leaking".

With its tower and turrets, the castle could almost have been imagined by Disney.

In fact it was built between 1566 and 1572 by George Sinclair, Fourth Earl of Caithness.

During the 17th and 18th centuries it was extended several times but passed out of the Sinclair family in 1889 after the 15th Earl died childless at the age of only 30.

He left it to his friend FG Heathcote on condition that he change his name to Sinclair.

After his death his widow sold it in 1928 to Captain FB Imbert-Terry.

He was the "old man" the Queen Mother referred to, who wanted to give the castle to her when she first saw it in 1952.

With 37 rooms, it is small for a castle with narrow spiral staircases and uneven steps.

It seems that once the refurbishments were finished, nothing was ever altered again - or indeed thrown away.

 Today’s weekend guests will be able to enjoy meals surrounded by paintings by Prince Philip [PETER JOLLY]

The TV set in one of the sitting rooms is an ancient large-backed, curved-screen type and the storage containers in the serving pantry next to the dining room are old-fashioned cream enamelware.

The wine goblets on the dining table are made of so-called cranberry glass which was popular in Queen Victoria's time but never since.

The pictures on either side of the dining room fireplace are by the Queen Mother's son-in-law, Prince Philip.

The guided tour for visitors is astonishingly intimate with photographs and handwritten notes left out on desks, her coats still hanging on the hat stand in the hall and her ancient TV set on a wheeled table in one sitting room.

Her staff established a tradition of giving her joke gifts which she displayed among the fine antiques.

Judging by what's on show, the competition for worst gift was fierce.

The stag's head mounted on the wall of one sitting room is actually made of fur fabric, like a soft toy.

There are gonks and figurines, and a stuffed Loch Ness monster wriggles along the top of a priceless Flemish tapestry.

Her bedroom looks like many a granny's boudoir - powder blue with a quilted bedspread and one of her familiar outfits still hanging up.

Just along the hall is Princess Margaret's bedroom with a high four-poster bed. However the sun-loving princess never spent a night in what she called "Mummy's draughty castle".

After the Queen Mother's death in 2002, a trust took over running the castle which has an impressive visitor centre with caf© and gift shop.

Prince Charles (known by the title Duke of Rothesay when he is Scotland) stays for around 10 days every August and the visitor centre is licensed for weddings.

The grounds have even hosted the Antiques Roadshow twice, in 2007 and 2013.

But the harsh truth is that the Castle of Mey has never paid its way and now loses up to £150,000 a year.

Renting it out to groups of 10 (or at a stretch 12) suitable guests was an inevitability.

According to the trust's chairman Ashe Windham, a former equerry, it may "make the difference between making a loss and at least breaking even".

What the weekend guests will get for their £50,000 is the services of a staff of 20 and wines supplied by Royal Warrant holders Justerini & Brooks but not the use of the Queen Mother's bedroom.

Advertising is strictly by word of mouth so guests also have to pass muster with the trust.

A test run in October went smoothly and one group has just departed with the next - a party of Americans - due in October.

Always a hospitable lady, surely the Queen Mother would be glad that someone wants to enjoy her haven, even if her own family don't.

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