Kate Middleton's rare Balmoral park that welcomed her to late Queen's inner circle

Kate Middleton's rare Balmoral park that welcomed her to late Queen's inner circle

Kate Middleton has been a regular visitor to the royals Scottish Highlands retreat of Balmoral for many years now - and a book claims that on one of her first trips there, the late Queen was keen to welcome the now Princess of Wales

The Prince and Princess of Wales have made it a family tradition to head to Scotland each summer to spend time at Balmoral.

Of course, Prince William has been visiting the Scottish Highlands retreat ever since he was a small boy with the rest of his royal relatives. And in recent years Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis got to spend precious time with their late great-grandmother the Queen at her favourite home, where she died last year.

King Charles is expected to carry on the tradition of the annual royal summer break at Balmoral, so no doubt the Wales family will head up there at some point during August. But unlike her husband and children, Kate was a lot older before she first visited the estate.

Her first invitation to spend time there came in the days when she started dating her future husband. There's no doubt Kate would have felt nervous ahead of her first few trips to the estate - but it appears the Queen was keen to make her feel welcome - and she reportedly did this by giving her a rare privilege.

According to royal author Katie Nicholl, Her Majesty gave Kate permission to bring her camera and take pictures at Balmoral and of the surrounding dramatic landscape, knowing how much she loved photography. And while this may not sound like a big deal to the average person, Katie explains this simply wasn't the done thing usually.

In her book, Kate: The Future Queen, she writes: "Until now the Queen had met Kate only fleetingly at the wedding of Peter and Autumn Phillips, but she went out of her way to make her feel welcome, giving her permission to take pictures at Balmoral."

A picture taken by Kate of the late Queen surrounded by some of her youngest relatives

And according to Katie, this and being invited to Balmoral showed how the Queen was ready to let Kate into the inner royal circle. She added: "As a woman who has lived her entire life in the public eye, the Queen rarely lets her guard down, and very few apart from her family and closest friends get to see the real Elizabeth."

Earlier this year, Kate gave a glimpse of the type of photos she's snapped at Balmoral when she shared a heartwarming previously unseen snap of the late Queen surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren during her final weeks.

The snap, taken by Kate last summer at Balmoral, shows the former monarch on a sofa with the young royals all smiles next to their beloved 'Gan Gan'. On the sofa next to her is her oldest great-grandchild Savannah Phillips, the eldest daughter of Peter Phillips, as well as Mia Tindall, who cradles her brother Lucas.

Behind them stands Lena Tindall, the middle child of Zara and Mike Tindall, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Isla Phillips and Prince Louis. Standing tall at the back are the Queen's youngest grandchildren Lady Louise Windsor and James, the new Earl of Wessex - the son and daughter of the now Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

It echoes another snap taken by Kate years earlier featuring many of the same children with the Queen as well as the late Prince Philip. The family snap was shared by Kate on what would have been Her late Majesty's 97th birthday in April - her first since her death last September. Last year, the former monarch spent her final weeks at the estate, carrying out her last duty appointing former Prime Minster Liz Truss before dying two days later on September 8.