Nestling on a bend of the river downstream of Balmoral Castle, Ballater seems a world apart from Cumnock, a mining community in East Ayrshire that has been fighting to regain its pride and purpose since the pits closed in the 1980s.
Yet these two villages more than 150 miles apart, where opportunities and incomes wildly differ, share a bond: King Charles has a house at the heart of each community.
“He genuinely cares about communities that have had some tough times and the question of how you regenerate them,” said the philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter, who has worked with the King since his purchase of Dumfries House near Cumnock in 2007. “Crucially, he takes action.”
The King’s love for Balmoral is a given, but less well known is Birkhall, the house on the royal estate he inherited from his grandmother 20 years ago. He spends up to four months a year there with Camilla, the Queen Consort.
Tucked away off a single-track public road at the head of Glen Muick, it is less than three miles from Ballater. Locally, the couple have become by far the most visible members of the royal family.
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When a flood swept through the village at the end of 2015, wrecking homes and businesses and washing away the community-owned caravan park, the “awesome”response from Charles and Camilla sealed their popularity there.
“He stepped in on day one after the flood and said, ‘What can I do to put it back on his feet again?’ ” recalled John Burrows, the chairman of Ballater Royal Deeside. “He’s been involved in every element since then.”
The cost of safely rebuilding the caravan park has not been made public but the impact of the work is undeniable, restoring an income stream of about £25,000 a year for the village.
For David Cobban, organiser of the village’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Charles’s reaction was typical of his thoughtful interventions. This summer Ballater’s main street has bloomed with flowers in 65 planters paid for by the King. “He’s been involved with the village for decades,” said Cobban, who is Ballater-born and bred. “But that initial contact, help and assistance after the flood forged new relationships.”
At Dumfries House, in East Ayrshire, the warmth towards the King is no less marked. When the 18th-century mansion was put on the market in 2007, James Knox, former editor of The Art Newspaper, led the campaign to save it.
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“No one in Scotland really ‘got’ Dumfries House, but [Charles] did,” said Knox. “He knew the impact it would have on the area.” A consortium led by Charles made a swift £45 million purchase and Dumfries House is now the HQ of the Prince’s Foundation.
“Talk about guts,” Knox said. “He could have been open to all sorts of attacks for trying to save a crumbling Georgian house belonging to an aristocrat but he saw way beyond that.”
The house, about two miles from Cumnock, is now a base for regeneration in the area, and the arts have flourished with royal patronage. Knox said: “It’s another extraordinary example of his mind and his engagement.”
