Peter Phillips’s fiancée is experiencing the renowned ‘Balmoral Test’ after being invited to the Scottish Highlands with the Royal Family for the first time prior to their wedding.

Future royal bride Harriet Sperling, a 45-year-old nurse, is set to marry the King’s nephew after the pair revealed they were engaged this summer.

The mother-of-one has joined King Charles and the Royal Family in Scotland, where she has been immediately submerged in the unofficial ‘test’ that prospective members of the family endure during their initial visit.

Guests are expected to enthusiastically participate in outdoor activities, change outfits as many as five times daily, and fully engage in the eating, drinking, and party games – all while crucially adhering to royal protocol throughout.

While other royals had their first trip to Balmoral years before their engagement – with Kate Middleton visiting two years before her marriage to Prince William – Harriet’s visit happens less than a month after her engagement to Peter was made public.

Princess Diana and Princess Catherine excelled on their initial visits to Balmoral, whereas Sarah, Duchess of York, Margaret Thatcher, and Cherie Blair reportedly faced some challenges.

Despite the hasty trip to Scotland, royal insiders have revealed that Harriet enjoyed her time with the family. 

She apparently joined Peter’s sister, Zara Tindall, on a trip with electric mountain bikes and went horse riding around the estate with other family members.

Because Peter is ‘smitten’ with his fiancée, it is understood Harriet is likely to pass the test with ‘flying colours’. 

‘Everyone knows Peter is smitten and his family have accepted Harriet into the set up so she will likely pass the infamous Balmoral Test with flying colours,’ a source said.

Princess Anne’s son, who is 19th in line to the throne, will marry Harriet after a year of dating.

The couple said in a statement: ‘Mr Peter Phillips, the son of HRH The Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips and Ms Harriet Sperling, daughter of the late Mr Rupert Sanders and Mrs Mary Sanders of Gloucestershire, have today confirmed their official engagement.

‘Both families were informed jointly of the announcement and were delighted with the wonderful news of their engagement. Their Majesties The King and Queen, The Prince and Princess of Wales have been informed of the announcement. No date has been officially set for the wedding.’

The Balmoral Test is said to date back as far as Prince Phillip and The Queen Mother who were both said to have been subjected to it.

The late Prince Phillip is said to have passed as he had attended school in Scotland and adored the outdoors.

The Queen’s mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyons, also went down a treat but Wallis Simpson dramatically failed by claiming the tartan carpets would ‘have to go’, The Telegraph reports.

Passing the Balmoral Test cannot always mean being welcomed into the Royal Family – as Princess Diana discovered.

The late Princess of Wales was such a hit on her first trip that pressure was put on Charles to propose to her. 

However, her enjoyment was brief and later admitted she was ‘unhappy and bored’, telling royal biographer Andrew Morton: ‘Instead of having a holiday, it’s the most stressful time of the year. It’s very close quarters.’ 

Princess Catherine was also a strong success when she first visited the sprawling estate in 2009 – two years before she married Prince William. 

According to Katie Nicholls, author of Kate: The Future Queen, the late Queen Elizabeth II apparently allowed her to take photographs at Balmoral – something which is usually prohibited.

A year later, her parents were invited to a shooting weekend which was widely seen – and later proven to be true – as a sign an engagement was on its way. 

It must have gone down well, given that in 2016 Carole Middleton returned and was seen being driven back from a shooting lunch by the Queen herself – something considered to be one of the biggest stamps of approval. 

While little is known about Meghan’s first trip to the estate – and whether she passed the test – she is known for being anti-hunting and field sports, one of the main activities at Balmoral. 

But perhaps the most controversial Balmoral trip was when Sarah, Duchess of York, was spending the summer there – only for pictures to emerge of her having her toes sucked by John Bryan.

But it’s not just royals who are invited to Balmoral. A long-standing tradition is that British Prime Ministers are invited for a holiday at the Scottish estate.

Margaret Thatcher suffered an early faux-pas, arriving without any outdoor shoes and then proceeding to spend much of the trip working, which allegedly did not go down well.

Meanwhile Cherie Blair is said to have worn trousers to lunch, did not enjoy field sports and refused to cursey.

Paul Scott, author of Tony & Cherie, claimed that she also not only failed to drink much but remarked on how much everyone else was. 

It remains to be seen how Harriet has done but she had been warmly welcomed by the Royal Family at previous engagements.

Earlier this year, she was seen laughing with King Charles and chatting with Peter’s sister Zara and his cousin Princess Beatrice at Ascot after she travelled in the official carriage procession with senior royals.

Harriet also affectionately and publicly planted a kiss on her fiancé’s lips as they watched the horse racing from the royal enclosure.

The couple announced they will marry and showed off Harriet’s diamond engagement ring in an exclusive interview and photoshoot with HELLO!

They revealed their relationship to the world last May when they were seen strolling hand-in-hand at Badminton Horse Trials in Gloucestershire.

Peter embarked on their new romance just weeks after his split from his previous partner Lindsay Wallace, after reportedly meeting Harriet at a sports event.

The smitten pair have since attended an array of high society events together, including Wimbledon and the Cheltenham Races in January.

Peter was previously married to Autumn Kelly from 2008 until 2021 with whom he shares two children.  

What his first wedding is most remembered for today is the intimate snapshot into the family life of the royals it provided, thanks to a deal Peter and Autumn signed with Hello! magazine.

As a £500,000 wedding present to the couple, Hello! were given exclusive rights to picture most of the ceremony including inside the chapel and the reception in Frogmore House.

This resulted in a 100-page exclusive feature from the magazine, which included remarkably candid shots of the royals including images of the family laughing and one photo of Prince Harry giving his grandmother – Elizabeth II – a peck on the cheek. 

They were a far cry from the traditionally stage-managed wedding photographs released by the Royal Family.

However, senior members of the family – including the late Queen – were allegedly less than impressed and felt blindsided by the publication of the pictures.

Buckingham Palace released a statement shortly afterwards claiming that the deal was a ‘serious error of judgement’.

After his split from Autumn, Peter had a three-year relationship with Scottish divorcee Lindsay Wallace which ended last year.

Behind the scenes, Harriet is mother to one daughter, Georgina, born in 2012, from her previous marriage to private school-educated fitness instructor Antonio St John Sperling. 

She also boasts wealthy connections and is related to the Duke of Gloucester through her late father.