A 175-year-old tradition is swiftly coming to an end for the royal family — but there doesn’t appear to be a ton of bad blood over it.
A new report from The Telegraph claims that a “catering mogul” is ending a nearly two-century tradition that the royal family has enjoyed for some time now.
Specifically, the royal family will no longer be permitted to go hunting near Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
Additionally, the family can no longer go deer stalking or fishing at Balmoral.
This change is coming after the aforementioned catering mogul, Alastair Storey, purchased the nearby Abergeldie Estate.
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As part of the Abergeldie purchase, Storey is terminating a longstanding agreement that gave the royal family special privileges.
Storey is ending that special agreement because he has grand plans for the estate — specifically, he wants to commercialize that hunting experience that the royal family had enjoyed for so long, per The Telegraph.
Planning documents obtained by the U.K. outlet state: “For the last 175 years the Royal family have leased the sporting rights at Abergeldie but this has now ceased, and will be actively run by the new Laird.
“To facilitate the transformation and to effectively run the estate, new facilities will be required.”
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These “new facilities” will “facilitate accommodation for the running of the estate and will include a social space for paying visitors to support the sporting activities on the estate.”
This change will be a significant one for the royal family.
Balmoral had been with the royal family for nearly 200 years after it was purchased by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1852.
In fact, just 25 years ago, the late queen ponied up extra money to procure those shooting and hunting rights.
Per The Telegraph, when Queen Elizabeth negotiated those terms, an estate worker quipped, “The original lease was negotiated with Queen Victoria… if she had offered a penny for the land, she would have got it.
“It’s different today, of course, people are not quite so servile.”
That lack of servile attitude appears to continue into 2023 with Storey’s imminent plans.
Despite all of that, according to a different U.K. outlet, GBNews, “it is believed there is no bitterness between the new owner and the Royal Family over the decision.”
