Diana, Princess of Wales, was known for her “complex” ties with Scotland.
However, as a newlywed, she expressed her fondness for spending time across the border at Balmoral, where she enjoyed the company of “grown-ups,” according to a letter she wrote to a former school friend.
This previously unpublished letter, dated September 27, 1981, was addressed to Katherine Hanbury, a classmate from West Heath Girls’ School in Kent. In it, Diana also mentioned her dislike for London.
While she relished exploring the royal estate in Royal Deeside, the formal protocols, heavy security, and the castle’s strict environment often left her feeling drained and stressed.
Yet, shortly after her royal wedding, Diana’s correspondence from Balmoral painted a more positive picture.
She described enjoying “endless sun” and “calm seas” during a cruise on the Royal Yacht Britannia.
Diana married the then Prince Charles when she was 20, having left school at 16 and dropped out of a finishing school in Switzerland before starting work in a nursery.
A selection of Diana’s letters are going to auction
The letters off an intriguing insight into Diana’s life just after she was married
In her note, written on royal-crested paper and sent to her friend, she said: ‘We had a blissful honeymoon with endless sun and luckily calm seas. We are now up in Scotland until the end of October, which is a big treat for us – I adore being outside all day & hate London!’
She also added: ‘Its [sic] wonderful being married – I think its [sic] safe to say that after two months!’
The letter suggests she was adapting to her new life and role within the Royal family as she wrote: ‘Its [sic] a case of playing with grown ups!’
Diana and Charles had boarded the Royal Yacht Britannia after their wedding on July 29, 1981 for a 12-day cruise of the Mediterranean before heading to Balmoral for several months.
The letter is among a collection of items to be auctioned by Ms Hanbury.
It includes photos of the future princess at school. One shows her sitting with a number of friends, including the Scottish actress Tilda Swinton and film director Joanna Hogg.
The collection will go under the hammer at Gorringe’s Fine Art & Interiors sale in Lewes, East Sussex, in July. It has an estimate of up to £6,000.
The timing of this sale coincides with what would have been the couple’s 45th anniversary.
Albert Radford, books and manuscripts specialist at Gorringe’s, said: ‘This intimate archive offers a rare glimpse of Diana, Princess of Wales, before duty and fame had the final say.
‘She appears here as a young woman suspended between love and history – hopeful, unguarded, and not yet entirely claimed by the institution that would come to define her.
The then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana during their honeymoon at Balmoral
‘In these small, fragile traces, innocence lingers – along with a quiet stubborn belief in something as simple and elusive as love.’
The photographs include one of the Princess outside the art room, one of her in a block known as the ‘cowsheds’, and a third shows her standing outside, close to the playing fields.
Diana married Charles at St Paul’s Cathedral with an estimated 750 million people watching across the world.
They separated in 1992 and following the Queen’s intervention, their 15-year long union officially ended in August 1996.
She died in a crash in Paris the following year.
