From his official London residence at Clarence House and stunning country pile at Highgrove to boltholes in Scotland, Wales and even Transylvania, Prince Charles has accumulated a fascinating real estate collection. The scenes of scandalous affairs, hauntings and two marriages, we reveal the secrets lurking within the future monarch’s past and present properties.

Born in 1948, the oldest of Queen Elizabeth II’s children, the Prince of Wales grew up in privileged surroundings. He spent his early childhood living between Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, departing the royal residences for prep school in 1958.

Prince Charles spent much of his youth living away from home but would still return to visit The Queen and his younger siblings. He spent the early part of his twenties studying at Trinity College, part of the University of Cambridge, eventually earning a master’s degree in history by 1975. He also served in the armed forces between 1971 and 1977, during which time he’d spend his leave living in rooms at Buckingham Palace and Windsor.

In 1980, the year before his marriage to Lady Diana Spencer, Prince Charles bought Highgrove House but was still spending much of his time on the road performing his royal duties. At 31 he was ready to have his own base, and the Gloucestershire house is equidistant between London and Cornwall.

At the age of 32, following his fairytale wedding to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, the prince and his new wife moved into London’s Kensington Palace. Apartments 8 and 9, which were built by King George I for his mistress the Duchess of Kendal, were combined to create a new large home for the newlyweds.

A sort of upmarket housing estate for royals, the palace dates from 1605 and was snapped up in 1689 for £20,000 ($26.3k) by King William III and Queen Mary II, who appointed Sir Christopher Wren to expand it. The palace served as the principal residence of Queen Anne, the subject of the Oscar-winning film The Favourite, but fell out of favour after her reign and was divided into apartments.

The estate is made up from the main mansion and a series of smaller properties scattered through the estate like Nottingham Cottage, where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle lived. The palace itself is divided into different apartments that traditionally serve as homes for non-ruling members of the immediate royal family, such as the Prince and Princess Michael of Kent in apartment 10.

Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales welcomed their first child Prince William on 21 June 1982. The trio are shown here in their sitting room, which was decorated in the dusky pink and duck egg blue hues Diana was so fond of.

This image of the young family posing for a picture in their apartments in Kensington Palace was captured in 1983. A year later, Prince Harry was born, but the couple’s marriage was already floundering. According to a recent Channel 4 documentary, Diana In Her Own Words, Charles was having an affair with his paramour Camilla Parker-Bowles as early as 1982. The royal couple eventually separated in 1992 and the prince moved to St James’s Palace.

According to Paul Burrell’s book, A Royal Duty. Diana would often sneak in suitors, using neighbour Princess Margaret’s secret door to gain access to her apartment. The princess remained at the palace following her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996 until her untimely death a year later. Her spirit is still celebrated in the halls of Kensington Palace, as in this installation dedicated to her by designer Vivienne Westwood during a major restoration of the apartments in 2010.

Prince Charles’ London base following his separation from Princess Diana, York House was a historic wing of St James’s Palace. It was built in 1736 for a previous Prince of Wales, Frederick Lewis, and was the home of the Duke of Cumberland, who later became King of Hanover, for several decades during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

After Princess Diana’s tragic death in 1997, Prince Charles remained at the St James’s Palace with his sons. Her apartment at Kensington Palace was stripped bare, and some of the contents were moved to York House.

Prince Charles resided at York House with Princes William and Harry until 2002. The property is said to comprise a number of low-pitched rooms on the ground floor, several small drawing rooms on the first floor, and servants’ quarters on the top floor that have exceedingly low ceilings.

Since 2002, the wing has been used as offices for Prince Charles’ household and the future monarch holds events in the state apartments of St James’s Palace – here he is pictured there in 2010 at a dinner for the Asian Trust.

Other receptions the prince has hosted there include an event to honour surviving members of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association (pictured). More recently, the prince opened the doors of the palace to 120 Greek students and businesspeople, greeting them in perfect Greek. Charles can also converse in French, German and Welsh.

Prince Charles bought his Gloucestershire country pile, Highgrove House, in 1980 – the year before he married Diana – for around £865,000 ($1.1 million) from Maurice Macmillan, the son of former UK Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan. The deal was slammed by Labour MP Reg Race who called it: “bloody outrageous on a day that the Government are cutting social security benefits for millions of people.” Princess Diana reportedly wasn’t a fan of the nine-bedroom property, which she thought was too small and not private enough.

As with so many stately homes, the 18th-century Georgian mansion has something of a tragic history. In 1850, the granddaughter of the then owner died after her ballgown caught alight during a soirée, and in 1893, the house was gutted by fire. It was renovated not long after at a cost of £6,000 ($7,862). Princess Diana reportedly wasn’t a fan of the nine-bedroom property, which she thought was too small and not private enough.

Nevertheless, Princess Diana spent many weekends with the family at Highgrove during the 1980s. Charles, who famously talks to his plants, set about creating a showcase organic garden in the estate’s 37 acres of grounds. A champion of organic farming and sustainability long before it went mainstream, HRH believes gardening “helps heal damaged souls.”

The house was decorated by Princess Diana’s favourite interior designer Dudley Poplak following the royal wedding in 1981. Poplak, who also revamped the Kensington Palace apartment, opted for a similar pastel colour scheme and a “youthful variant of the chintzy country-house look”. In 1987, the house was remodelled by Prince Charles (pictured here with his staff in 1991) who commissioned several Neoclassical additions.

The prince also added the “Wall of Worthies” to the garden, which features several busts of historic figures. Following the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Camilla Parker-Bowles (pictured at a reception at Highgrove in 2009) had the house redecorated, calling on the services of interior designer Robert Kime.

Prince Charles took ownership of another superb property after the death of the Queen Mother in 2002. Clarence House became his official London residence and home to Prince William and Prince Harry up to 2012. Located next to St James’s Palace, the John Nash-designed building built for the Duke of Clarence in 1827. The four-storey house was also home to the Queen and Prince Philip for a time before HM ascended the throne.

Before the Prince of Wales moved into Clarence House, the mansion was refurbished with the British taxpayer footing the bill of £4.5 million ($5.9m), though the royal did splurge £1.6 million ($2.1 million) of his own money on soft furnishings. The prince allowed Google Arts & Culture into the house last year for a nose around, so you can see for yourself if it was money well-spent.

The prince has legions of staff, including multiple footmen who are responsible for escorting guests along specific corridors of Clarence House.

In his 2006 book On Royalty, Jeremy Paxman wrote that at breakfast each morning the royal is said to be presented with seven boiled eggs cooked to varying degrees so he can choose the perfect one to eat. But Clarence House dismissed the claim in 2012, saying: “No, he doesn’t and never has done, at breakfast or any other time.”

Love this? Discover the secrets of the British Royal Family’s private homes.

The Prince of Wales’ private Scottish estate, Birkhall is situated on the edge of Balmoral in the wilds of Aberdeenshire. Dating from 1715, the estate, which sprawls over 53,000 acres, was acquired by Prince Albert in 1852 together with Balmoral. It eventually passed to the Queen Mother, who bequeathed the property to her grandson upon her death in 2002.

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall spent their honeymoon at the unpretentious pile, which was described by the Queen Mother as “a small big house, or a big small house”. In fact, the charming hunting lodge has hosted six royal honeymoons in total.

The Prince of Wales has adored the property since his first trips there as a young child. He is pictured here with his sister Princess Anne in 1951. A sanctuary for the prince during his teenage years, he would visit regularly to escape the horrors of Gordonstoun – the notoriously strict Scottish prep school that Charles once reportedly described as “Colditz in kilts”.

When at Birkhall, the prince is said to spend his time fishing, stalking deer, sketching and watercolour painting. Following the Queen Mother’s death, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall oversaw a sensitive redecoration of the property, hiring their favourite interior designer Robert Kime for the job, but they were careful to retain its distinctive character.

Given this is a strictly private home, images of the interiors are few and far between but this shot of the prince, which is taken from a BBC documentary, gives you some idea about the décor, which is simple and homely. The house is said to feature Royal Stewart tartan on the floors and walls, plus a number of quirky features, including 11 grandfather clocks in the dining room.

The prince and his wife aren’t the only royals who enjoy staying at Birkhall. In 2011, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrated what must have been a very memorable New Year’s Eve at the property. The Queen (pictured with Charles in the sitting room at Birkhall) also likes to spend time at the secluded estate and is said to particularly enjoy riding there.

Prince Charles’ love of Scotland led him to save a struggling stately home, Dumfries House. The magnificent Palladian country house was built in the 1750s for William Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries, by eminent architects John Adam and Robert Adam. The property was eventually passed down to John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute, who struggled to pay for its upkeep.

Unable to keep the house on, the marquess (pictured) was forced to sell up. An architectural gem, Dumfries House was purchased for the nation in 2007 by a consortium led by Prince Charles at a cost of £45 million ($59m), with the prince putting in £20 million ($26.2m) from his own charitable foundation’s funds.

Dumfries House was in a rather poor state of repair when the prince acquired it. A painstaking restoration was carried out not long after the property was purchased, and the country house was opened to the public in 2008. The idea is for the estate to be self-sufficient and help regenerate the local economy.

As part of the project, an eco-village called Knockroon, similar to the prince’s experimental new town of Poundbury in Dorset, is taking shape in the grounds of Dumfries House. The sustainable project is expected to take around 25 years to complete. The royal is shown here in 2011 unveiling the foundation stone.

Though Prince Charles has received much praise for saving the estate, the royal has been widely criticised in equal measure for pumping so much of the Duchy’s cash into it. Some view Dumfries House as a vanity project for the prince but it has provided Cumnock locals with valuable employment opportunities. This picture shows the mansion’s elegant drawing room restored to its former glory.

Chillingly, the Duchess of Cornwall is convinced the house was haunted: “It had a really eerie feel about it,” she recently revealed in an ITV documentary. “There was definitely a ghost. Without a shadow of a doubt.” Camilla, the future queen consort pictured here walking her dog in the grounds, would freeze upon entering the property initially, but now feels the phantom has gone.

The Castle of Mey is situated in an especially isolated location on the windswept north coast of Scotland. Featured in the Netflix series The Crown, the castle, which was built between 1566 and 1572 for the 4th Earl of Caithness, was purchased by the Queen Mother in 1952 following the death of her husband King George VI.

A faraway retreat for the recently widowed Queen Mother to mourn her late husband. She would escape to the much-loved Castle of Mey every August and October from 1955 until shortly before her death in 2002. Before moving in, the royal reinstated the original name – it was called Barrogill Castle when she bought it  – and restored the building, removing many of the 19th-century additions.

While Prince Charles doesn’t actually own the castle – it now belongs to a trust – he travels there every year in late August with the Duchess of Cornwall for a 10-day stay. Remarkable in its remoteness, there is very little to do at the castle aside from playing board games and venturing out for bracing walks.

Still, the Queen Mother was in her element at the Scottish estate. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are equally enamoured with the castle, enjoying its seclusion and distance from civilisation.

Keen to introduce the delights of the castle to paying guests, the prince is overseeing the renovation of the old stables and granary, which are being transformed into 10 eco-luxe guest rooms. The sustainable project is expected to be completed in April 2019, in time for the summer season.

The castle is popular with other royals too – Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex enjoyed a romantic break there in 2018. Whether they encountered the resident ghost is anyone’s guess. The castle is rumoured to be haunted by the Green Lady, the ghost of Lady Fanny Sinclair, who is said to have had an affair with a stable hand in the 1880s. When her father found out, he banished the young man, and the heartbroken Lady Sinclair supposedly took her own life.

Llwynywermod is Prince Charles’ 192-acre Welsh estate on the edge of the breathtaking Brecon Beacon mountains in Carmarthenshire. Though he has been titled Prince of Wales since 1958, the monarch-to-be acquired the property relatively recently, with the Duchy of Cornwall purchasing the house and grounds in 2006.

The property was bought for £1.3 million ($1.7 million) and has a long and illustrious history. It was first owned by William Williams back in the 13th century, a relative of the ill-fated Anne Boleyn, and was the seat of the Griffies-Williams baronets until 1877 when the line came to an end. The estate was originally called Llwynywormwood, which means “Wormwood Grove”.

The Griffies-Williams family resided in a grand 13-bedroom country house on the estate, but the building has been in ruins since the 19th century. The prince’s three-bedroom cottage is actually part of the former coach house, which has been converted. The property also includes two characterful holiday cottages which can be rented out when the prince and duchess aren’t in residence.

Prince Charles hired architect Craig Hamilton to transform the property. In keeping with the royal’s philosophy of sustainability, the project was undertaken with the utmost care and attention by local craftsmen and women. The mansion’s romantic ruins were preserved, lending an air of mystery to the estate.

Sheep’s wool was used to insulate the structure, hemp plaster was daubed on the walls and other traditional materials were employed in the conversion. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have decorated the interiors with Welsh artefacts and artworks by local artists.

The whitewashed structure has a courtyard garden with a fountain and two small wildflower meadows, one of which contains an apple orchard. The prince and the Duchess of Cornwall make a point of staying at the idyllic property every summer during their annual tour.

This surprisingly modest four-bedroom bungalow on St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly was the 20-year-old prince’s first proper private property purchase. He bagged the compact bachelor pad in 1969 – it was constructed a few years before in the mid-1960s – and spent Christmas of that year there, no doubt pleased as punch to have a place of his own to chill out in.

Once the prince was a married man with children however, he preferred to stay with his family in Tresco during their regular holidays to the gorgeous Scilly Isles. Here they are in June 1989 heading off for a bike ride. The bungalow was simply too small for the four of them, and the prince from that point onwards lent it out to relatives and friends.

The property was named after the tamarisk shrubs that encircle it. Rare on the mainland, these plants thrive in the isles’ sub-tropical climate. In 2016, the prince was granted approval to transform the bungalow into a chocolate box cottage, though the revamp didn’t go down well with everyone.

A local councillor voted against the renovation of the decidedly undistinguished 1960s property. Echoing criticism of some of the prince’s other pet projects such as Poundbury and Knockroon, the council member described the revamp as a “pastiche”. In any case, the project went ahead and the property is now available to rent out.

In addition to the tastefully decorated dual-aspect sitting room, the cottage has an attractive country-style kitchen and dining area complete with an electric range cooker, traditional ceramic butler’s sink and shaker cabinets. From the countertops to the slate flooring, the home’s finishes are of the highest standard.

The understated luxury carries into the cottage’s four bedrooms. They feature pretty furniture, carefully selected artwork and quirky details such as a swan ornament (pictured), plus each bed is draped in high-end Egyptian cotton bed linen. All this doesn’t come cheap however. A seven-night stay costs from £1,605 ($2,096) in January, rising to £4,300 ($5,615) in high season.

Famed for its association with Count Dracula and brutal real-life ruler Vlad the Impaler, Transylvania is one of Prince Charles’ favourite holiday destinations, believe it or not. The prince visited the region of Romania in 1998, not long after the death of Diana, and was smitten with the place – so much so that he went on to buy two properties there.

The pair of properties are looked after by the prince’s close friend Count Kalnoky. Charles acquired his first Transylvanian home in 2006 in the Saxon village of Viscri. He followed up the purchase in 2010 by buying this cottage in Zalanpatak for the rumoured price of £12,000 ($15,666), which he restored. The prince is pictured here with the count and his staff.

Prince Charles stays at the cottages when he visits Romania, but for the rest of the year they are rented out to holidaymakers. Like the other renovation projects the royal has been involved with, the properties have been sensitively restored using authentic construction methods and traditional, locally sourced materials.

While there are no strategic strings of garlic, the rooms of each cottage boast Transylvanian antiques and other objects pertaining to the region. The sitting room has a grand fireplace and a snug bank of window seats, ideal for the cold and dark Transylvanian nights, as well as solid wood cabinetry and cosy armchairs.

The regally named Prince’s Room is the most opulent. The spacious bedroom wows with a carved king-sized twin bed, which is adorned with heritage textiles that were hand-picked by the count and his staff. When Prince Charles comes to stay, this is the room he beds down in.

The dinky Aunt Ida’s Room has a traditional Transylvanian drawer bed, which sleeps two and is decorated in the same heritage style. Note the crucifix on the wall, which is clearly a must in this part of the world. If you’re brave enough to stay at the cottage, you can expect to pay from £81 ($106) a night for the Prince’s Room, and £66 ($86) per night for Aunt Ida’s Room.