Prince William And Kate Middleton's Private Unseen Cottage — Details

Aug 06, 2021 by apost team

Although Kate Middleton and Prince William spend most of their time at Kensington Palace in London or at Anmer Hall in Norfolk, they reportedly have a third residence that few know about. The private residence in question is located at Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands, which Queen Elizabeth II often uses as a summer retreat. The three-bedroom secret cottage is called Tam-Na-Ghar, and so little is known about it that there are no photos of its interior or exterior.

According to Marie Claire Magazine, the Cambridges’ third residence was a gift to William from his grandmother, the queen.

However, since 2013 when Prince George was born, Kate and William have spent most of their time at Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace in London. And while “Apartment 1A” certainly doesn’t sound like much — at least not for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge — the “apartment” is actually a massive 20-room, four-story apartment.

Kate and William also have the more well-known Anmer Hall getaway, a Georgian country home in the village of Anmer, which is located on the coast of Norfolk, England. The home, which is part of Sandringham Estate, was built in the 18th century, and since then it has had a variety of inhabitants from civil servants to members of the royal family. Today, of course, it belongs to the Cambridges — a wedding gift from the queen.

Given their status as royals, getting a glimpse of the Cambridges' homes, including the rather mysterious Tam-Na-Ghar cottage, provides us with a first look at how Kate and William really live. We’ll take a closer look at the Cambridges’ three royal residences.

Information about Tam-Na-Ghar is relatively sparse. In a 2021 piece from Marie Claire, the magazine reported that “it appears that they rarely” stay at the queen’s home in Balmoral, Scotland. This is because Kate and William have their own residence on the Balmoral Estate, the three-bedroom cottage Tam-Na-Ghar. Marie Claire further reported that William and Kate have, according to close friends, spent some of their best times together at the private cottage. Other than that, there hasn’t been much reporting on the cottage.

While there are no guarantees, perhaps fans of the royals will eventually get a glimpse at the residence, as there are already plenty of photos of the Cambridges’ Anmer Hall residence and a few of Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace. 

Although Americans unfamiliar with Kensington Palace and the British monarchy might think that royal apartments like 1A must be small, British royal expert Christopher Warwick explained that this definitely isn’t the case.

“All of these royal residences at Kensington Palace are called apartments, which of course makes people immediately think they are flats like the American term for an apartment,” Warwick explained on the show, as The Daily Mail reports.

“They are not. If you think of Kensington Place in a way it is built around three courtyards. If you kind of think of them as being these wonderful red brick terrace houses. Because they are all joined, but separate houses,” Warwick added.

Warwick went on to say that Apartment 1A includes 20 rooms from “the basement to the attic,” emphasizing again that the Duke and Duchess’ Kensington Palace pad is not, by any stretch of the word, a small house.

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But fans of the royal family shouldn’t feel bad if this is the first they’re hearing of the extravagant apartment because both Middleton and Prince George are very private when it comes to the property, as several media outlets note. However, the public did get a peek into the 20-room house back in 2016 when photographs were taken of a visiting Barack and Michelle Obama. And let’s just say that the Cambridge family certainly lives large!

With that being said, Middleton and Prince William do have a fairly big family with their three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and the youngest Prince Louis. But even when we consider that the Duke and Duchess are part of a family of five, Apartment 1A still seems pretty grand. After all, that’s still five rooms per person.

“It's enormous... and it's like a piece of countryside in London,” royal author Ingrid Seward said of the residence.

During Prince William and Middleton’s residence at Apartment 1A, the property was also renovated with a £4.5 million (or nearly $6 million) of taxpayers’ money. But because Middleton has a bit of a knack for decorating, the couple foot the bill for the residence’s furnishings.

And if that doesn’t seem like enough, the Cambridges also have their 10-bedroom Georgian manor in the charming village of Anmer in Norfolk, England. The 18th-century country retreat has a swimming pool and a tennis court, according to Town & Country Magazine. What’s more, the Duke and Duchess were lucky enough to move in right when over $2 million was spent renovating the manor and its grounds. Suffice it to say that despite their titles, Prince William and Middleton live like kings.

Which royal residence would you like to live in? And have you ever heard of Tam-Na-Ghar?