Queen Elizabeth hosts a party at Balmoral every year: Every summer, Queen Elizabeth travels to Balmoral Castle in Scotland for her summer vacation. Her granddaughter shared the documentary Our Queen At Ninety.
After Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert bought Balmoral in 1852, they held a ball in September to thank their staff and servants.
The Ghillies Ball was also held during the successive reigns of Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather.
The first dance, McGrady shares, was typically the “Dashing White Sergeant” — a Scottish country dance where two women dance with one man.
In Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch, Queen Elizabeth biographer Sally Bedell Smith writes that At the ball, men wear black tie and kilts, and women wear tiaras, long dresses and tartan sashes with diamond brooches.
The ball is usually held each year towards the end of the royal family’s summer holidays, i.e. in late August or early September. It takes place in the Great Ballroom of Balmoral Castle.
