This summer, royal enthusiasts will be able to set foot inside rooms of two iconic royal residences for the first time ever. The royal family will make internal tours of Scotland's Balmoral Castle, as well as the East Wing of Buckingham Palace, available to the public in July and August. 

Balmoral Castle, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was known to be the late Queen Elizabeth II’s favorite place to spend time. It’s also where she spent her final days and died in 2022. Beginning this summer, the public will be allowed to explore parts of the royal residence for the first time ever since its completion in 1855.

The royal family usually spends large parts of their summers at Balmoral, a tradition that has continued into the reign of King Charles III. Last summer, the bulk of the royal family, with the exception of the estranged Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, gathered at the castle.

This week, royal websites were updated with tickets for guided tours of the castle, which had previously only been offered on select dates for the grounds and the ballroom. The intimate tours, which were limited to 10 attendees per group and were only available on dates in July and early August, quickly sold out.

The royal estate in the Scottish Highlands is a touchstone for the family, and the site not only of family gatherings and the longest-sitting monarch’s death, but other milestone memories as well. In a recently resurfaced clip of Prince William giving a speech in Scotland in 2021, he recalled being at Balmoral when he found out that his mother, Princess Diana, had died.

“Still in shock, I found sanctuary in the service at Crathie Kirk that very morning,” he said. “And in the dark days of grief that followed, I found comfort and solace in the Scottish outdoors. As a result, the connection I feel to Scotland will forever run deep.”

The castle and its land were first purchased by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1852 when they promptly began construction to expand and modernize the previously too-small estate they had fallen in love with. Notably, Queen Elizabeth herself was proposed to by Prince Philip on the 50,000 acres of what Victoria once called “my dear paradise in the Highlands.”

The rooms of Balmoral aren’t the only royal spaces to be made newly available to guests. On Wednesday, the Royal Trust announced that Buckingham Palace’s East Wing would also be opened for the first time this summer, following its five-year renovation. This will be the first time that the public will be able to visit the room leading out to the central balcony that has been the setting for so many milestones for the royal family, including the traditional appearance greeting the public at the summer Trooping the Colour festivities.

Certain rooms of Buckingham Palace have been opened in the summer for guided tours since 1992 when Queen Elizabeth began the offering as a fundraiser following a fire in the royal residence, but this is the first time in the castle’s history that these rooms will be available for public viewing.